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Illustrative: Palestinians arrive to receive their $100 financial aid as part of the aid allocated by Qatar to poor families, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on February 4, 2021. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
Israeli authorities continued to delay transferring a consignment of Russian COVID-19 vaccines to Gaza on Tuesday, despite a formal request by the Palestinian Authority to send the shipment from Ramallah to the coastal enclave.
The Palestinian Authority Health Minister Mai Alkaila said Monday that Israel bore “full responsibility” for blocking the delivery of 2,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine that were acquired by the PA. Israeli health official Asher Salmon told the Knesset on Monday that Israel had only received a request to transfer 1,000 doses.
Sanaa Alswerky 02/16/2021
Israel bears full responsibility for this “arbitrary procedure,” Palestinian health minister says; Israel says PA needs to complete paperwork
[Gaza City] The Health Ministry in Gaza was expecting the arrival of the Strip’s first COVID-19 vaccines on Monday, but after more than 18 hours of waiting, Israel denied permission for the shipment to enter the coastal enclave.
“The vaccine shipment, which was expected to arrive via the Kerem Shalom crossing, is part of the Russian aid for Palestinians to face the pandemic,” Majdy Dhair, deputy chief of primary care at Gaza’s Health Ministry, told The Media Line.
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Palestinian health workers at a hospital in the West Bank town of Nablus, where health workers were vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) earlier today, after the delivery of vaccine doses from Israel. February 3, 2021. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)
Around 40 percent of Palestinians tested for coronavirus antibodies came back positive, according to the preliminary findings of a large-scale report by the Palestinian Authority.
Researchers took 6,000 blood samples from Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. According to the World Health Organization, the preliminary findings suggest that an estimated 40% of the Palestinian population has coronavirus-related antibodies.
The PA Health Ministry, the Palestinian National Institute of Public Health (PNIPH), and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics conducted the survey with support from the WHO, which provided antibody testing kits.
People wear face masks on a shopping street in Gaza City in January.
How does the pandemic affect one of the world s most crowded and battle-scarred territories? From merchants to doctors, the 2.2 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip are forced to make tough choices to survive.
On a single street, a vegetable seller, supermarket worker and secondhand clothes merchant recently showed up at their day jobs though the clothes merchant said he was convinced all three of them had COVID-19. I feel bad about myself. I would quarantine myself for a whole month if I could, but I have to keep the shop open. I have no other source of income, Hossam, 26, told NPR by video chat. He declined to give his full name because he could be arrested for keeping his shop open while sick.