Coronavirus: Israeli army blocks passage of first vaccines sent to Gaza | International

The Israeli military has blocked the passage of the first COVID-19 vaccines sent into the Gaza Strip at a checkpoint with the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority accuses Israel of having withheld 2000 doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine since Monday without justification, which it had planned for the vaccination of health workers most at risk of contagion in the coastal enclave. A spokesperson for the military body which manages the occupation of the Palestinian territories assured on Tuesday that the medical equipment had been blocked due to “a political decision” by the National Security Council, which reports to the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

At the start of the pandemic it was respirators and protective gear, now it is vaccines that have come under pressure from Israel on Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip, with which it has had to face in three wars between 2008 and 2014. The precariousness of the health system is evident after having been partially destroyed in successive armed conflicts and deteriorated by the blockade imposed on the strip by Israel, with the support of Egypt. The enclave’s two million inhabitants, confined for 13 years to just 375 square kilometers, have had to cope with the consequences of the pandemic with limited foreign aid.

Palestinian Minister of Health, Dr Mai al Kaila, assured that “the doses withheld were intended for health workers working in intensive care units for patients with COVID-19 in Gaza and in emergency services “. For Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem, “blocking vaccines is a crime that violates international humanitarian law.” Israeli NGOs – such as Gisha and Doctors for Human Rights, cited by Efe – accuse Israel of inflicting collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza which violates the Geneva Convention on the Humanitarian Law of War.

Come on, MPs in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) have justified the expedition being blocked in order to prevent it from being hijacked to immunize the political and military leaders of Hamas, which has de facto ruled the gang since 2007. . They did it. also demanded that vaccines remain on hold until the Islamist movement frees two Israelis captive in the enclave and returns the remains of two soldiers killed in the 2014 conflict.

Hostages as an excuse

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, Zvi Hauser, on Tuesday asked the government to explain the reasons why the delivery of doses of Sputnik V was allowed “while Israeli hostages are being kidnapped”. Coalition Arab Joint List MP Ahmed Tibi expressed outrage over a debate in which he tried to justify the vaccine blockade. “Your children will be ashamed of you,” he criticized parliamentarians.

The two Israeli civilians were captured after accidentally crossing the separation fence with Gaza five years ago. Both would be disturbed in their mental faculties. They are Avera Mengistu, a Jew of Ethiopian origin, and the Bedouin Hisham al Sayed. Relatives of soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, who were reportedly killed in action during the so-called Operation Protective Edge, waged an active campaign to recover their bodies and bury them in accordance with the tradition of Judaism.

Hamas’ demands for the exchange of large numbers of Palestinian prisoners, in exchange for the two Israeli civilians and the remains of the two soldiers, last year blocked a principle of agreement that also involved receiving medical aid. . The Islamist leader of the enclave, Yahya Sinwar, was one of 1,027 prisoners released by Israel in exchange for the release of soldier Gilad Shalit, held captive in Gaza between 2006 and 2011.

Israel is a world leader in per capita vaccinations. It has already immunized about 30% of its 9.2 million inhabitants with the two doses from pharmaceutical company Pfizer and hopes to exceed the protection bar of 50% of its citizens by the end of March. In the face of growing international pressure to assume the moral responsibility, protected by humanitarian law of war, to include in the vaccination campaign the 2.5 million inhabitants of the West Bank and the two million of Gaza – who live under occupation or blockade since 1967– Israel has asserted that since the Oslo Accords (1993), the Palestinian Authority is responsible for its own health system. Finally, it gave Palestinian health care 5,000 doses from the Moderna laboratory, of which it has so far delivered only 2,000, and allowed the passage of 10,000 doses of Sputnik V sent by the Moscow government.