JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel on Friday postponed plans to vaccinate Palestinians working in the land and settlements in the West Bank until further notice.
COGAT, the Israeli military that coordinates day-to-day affairs with the Palestinian Authority, attributed the delay to “administrative delays,” adding that a new launch date for the campaign would be set later.
The vaccination program would start Sunday at the border crossings from the West Bank to Israel and at Israeli industrial zones.
Such vaccinations could have dispelled criticism of Israel for not sharing significant amounts of its vaccine supplies with Palestinians living under Israeli control in the West Bank and Gaza – even as Israel managed to launch one of the fastest vaccinations in the world .
Israel had also announced plans to share surplus vaccines with distant allies in Africa, Europe and Latin America, but the decision was frozen over by legal questions. On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said with leaders from Denmark and Austria that the three countries would join forces in the fight against COVID-19 by investing in research and vaccine roll-out.
About 100,000 Palestinian workers from the West Bank work in Israel. The PA had been dosed enough for only 6,000 of its people – meaning the vast majority of the estimated 7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will remain unvaccinated.
The West Bank was placed under new restrictive measures last week to curb the wave of infections.