Today, Sunday, the Israeli Prisons Authority announced its intention to vaccinate all its prisoners - including the Palestinians - against the emerging corona virus, after the government's criticism in this regard.

Israel faced criticism after Internal Security Minister Amir Ohana stated that Palestinian detainees would not be vaccinated.

Ohana confirmed at the end of last month that providing the Corona vaccine to Palestinian prisoners in the occupation prisons is subject to a permission from the government.

Israeli media said at the time that Ohana had instructed the Prisons Authority not to give prisoners vaccinations against Corona.

He linked the vaccination units to obtaining permits from the official authorities, while allowing employees and workers of the Prison Authority to receive the vaccine.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit criticized the remarks, considering the measure "illegal", according to the local press.

The Palestine Liberation Organization also called on Israel to vaccinate the Palestinians in its 4,400 prisoners, according to what was reported by the French Press Agency, in whose ranks there were 250 cases of HIV, according to what the Palestinian Prisoners Club announced.

Palestinian families confirmed that the prison administration confiscated cleaning materials and did not allow the prisoners to purchase the necessary sterilization materials from their own money since the beginning of the spread of the Corona virus.

Last week, 5 Israeli human rights organizations resorted to the Israeli Supreme Court, demanding the vaccination of Palestinian prisoners, saying that this is a "legal and moral duty."

The Prisons Authority said in its statement today, "After vaccinating employees (...), vaccinations of inmates in prisons will begin, in accordance with the applicable medical and operational protocol."

A spokeswoman for the Prisons Administration confirmed to the French press that "this decision includes all prisoners without discrimination."

According to the spokeswoman, prisoners will be vaccinated according to the protocol established by the Ministry of Health, which depends on vaccinating older age groups first.

On Sunday evening, the Prisons Authority said that a campaign to vaccinate prisoners will start on Monday.

Many human rights organizations and organizations called for enabling Palestinian prisoners to receive the Corona vaccine (Al-Jazeera)

Hamas

For its part, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) commented by its spokesperson Hazem Qassem on the Israeli decision, saying that "the occupation is obligated according to laws and customs to provide vaccinations to the prisoners."

"The significant increase in the number of HIV infections among prisoners in the occupation prisons confirms the deliberate negligence of the Zionist prison administration in providing means of prevention and protection," Qassem added.

A human rights position

For its part, Human Rights Watch confirmed in a statement Sunday that it is the duty of the Israeli authorities to provide vaccines to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Omar Shakir, director of the organization in Israel and Palestine, said, "Nothing can justify today's reality in parts of the West Bank, where people receive the vaccine on one side of the street, while others on the other side are deprived of it based on whether they are Jews or Palestinians."

"Everyone in the same lands should receive the vaccine fairly, regardless of their ethnic origin," he added.

Despite the fact that more than two million people in Israel received the first dose of the "Pfizer-BioNTech" vaccine and the imposition of the third comprehensive closure, infections with the new Corona virus still recorded a remarkable increase, with more than 9,000 daily infections counted.

According to statistics from the Israeli Ministry of Health, since the outbreak of the pandemic, the authorities have counted more than 543,000 cases of the virus, including 3,950 deaths.

Last week, the Palestinian Authority announced the signing of 4 contracts to obtain vaccines against the emerging corona virus, including the Russian vaccine, to be delivered by two months and include 70% of the population.

As of Sunday morning, the occupied West Bank had recorded more than 104,000 cases of Coronavirus, including 1,230 deaths, while the impoverished and besieged Gaza Strip counted about 48,000 cases, including 484 deaths.