Israeli authorities confirmed on Sunday (February 28) that tens of thousands of Palestinians with permits to work in Israeli territory or in settlements in the occupied West Bank will soon be able to be vaccinated.

Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority announced on February 19 an agreement with Israel to vaccinate some 100,000 Palestinians working in Israeli territory against Covid-19, where a vast and intense vaccination campaign is being carried out.

While the Israeli authorities had reported talks on this subject with the Palestinians, they had not confirmed the launch of such a vaccination campaign for Palestinian workers.

But on Sunday, "the political level approved (...) the holding of a vaccination campaign for Palestinian workers with a work permit for Israel and the communities in Judea and Samaria (name given by the Hebrew state to settlements in the West Bank), "Cogat, the Defense Ministry body that oversees civilian activities in the Palestinian Territories, told the media.

>> To read also: "Covid-19 in Israel: a flash vaccination campaign with promising effects"

This vaccination campaign, led in particular by Cogat and the Israeli Ministry of Health, will begin in the "coming days" at entry points from the occupied West Bank to Israel and in "industrial zones" in Israeli settlements, he said. added Cogat, specifying that Palestinian workers would receive doses of Moderna's vaccine.

More than 4.65 million Israelis (50% of the population) have received at least a first dose since the launch, on December 19, of a vaccination campaign in favor of an agreement with the Pfizer laboratory, which quickly supplies the country in exchange for biomedical data on the effect of the vaccine.

The Palestinians received just over 30,000 doses of vaccines, including 2,000 from Israel, which pledged to provide 5,000. Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila said alerted in recent days to a "very worrying" epidemiological situation in the West Bank due to an upsurge in the number of cases among young people.

With AFP

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