Middle East: Palestinians still little or not vaccinated against Covid-19

Vaccination campaign in Gaza, March 2021 (illustrative image).

AP - Adel Hana

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

This was one of the main recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO): "not to deprive poor countries", or not to vaccinate with a third dose when other countries have still not benefited from the main injections… denouncing the rush of rich countries towards vaccine doses.

In the Middle East, this situation is clearly illustrated, the vaccination gaps between Palestinians and Israelis are staggering. 

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With our correspondent in Ramallah,

Alice Froussard

Israel will now lower the age of the third dose of vaccine to 40, while Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza are still poorly vaccinated and fear a resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic which could be dramatic, and which could take place by mid-September (with the reopening of schools and universities), due to the spread of the Delta variant.

Low vaccination rate of Paletinians 

Israel is therefore one of the first countries to expand its vaccination campaign.

For more than two weeks, Israel has offered a third injection of the vaccine for a better immune response;

more than a million people have already benefited from it and the government wants to extend it to its entire population from next month.

And this, while the vaccination rates of Palestinians are very low.

According to the Ramallah health ministry, only 9% of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are fully immunized with two doses, 13% received only one.

In Gaza, the vaccination rate is even lower: 5% of residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

So the criticisms are sharp, especially among the Palestinians.

In the press, many columnists first denounce a moral problem, citing the fact that Israel has not followed the recommendations of the World Health Organization, which calls for a moratorium on the third dose of the vaccine.

Ethical problem

They also denounce an ethical problem, stressing that as an occupying power according to international law and particularly according to the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel should vaccinate the Palestinians.

Even Israeli experts speak of an epidemiological problem, and a public health issue.

Because the borders are porous and thousands of Palestinian workers, as well as all those with a permit, can travel to Israel, and thus spread the virus.

►Also read

: West Bank: Day 1 of the anti-Covid vaccination campaign for the Palestinian population

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