Israel to provide a million Covid vaccines for Palestinian Authority

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses will be delivered in the coming days

A Palestinian medical worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the Palestinian Medical Centre in the West Bank. EPA

Israel will give the Palestinian Authority about a million soon-to-expire doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's office said on Friday.

In a joint statement with the health and defence ministries, Mr Bennett's office said the PA in exchange had agreed to give Israel a reciprocal number of Pfizer doses from one of its Covax shipments that is expected to arrive later this year.

Covax is a World Health Organisation initiative to supply vaccines to countries without the resources to vaccinate their populations.

Palestine is among the beneficiaries of about six million doses the US has earmarked for countries in the Middle East as part of the Covax programme.

Israel's announcement came days after Mr Bennett took office as head of a new government.

Israel, which has vaccinated about 85 per cent of its adult population, has been criticised for not sharing its vaccines with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Israel has vaccinated only about 115,000 West Bank Palestinians who hold Israeli work permits.

Earlier this year, the PA accused the government of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of holding up the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines to Gaza.

The PA previously said Israel stopped vaccine shipments from the West Bank to Gaza, claiming a lack of approval.