Palestinians expand vaccination campaign after UN shipment

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Palestinian Health Ministry began administering the first doses of coronavirus vaccines it received from the global COVAX initiative to health care workers and older residents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Sunday.

The World Health Organization and its partners running the United Nations COVAX program delivered 61,400 vaccines to the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday, whereas 21,300 were shipped to the blockaded, Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The vaccine shipment is a boost to the West Bank, where the PA has struggled to obtain vaccines as the infection rate surged in recent weeks. Until now it had only secured 10,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and 2,000 shots from Israel for the roughly 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.

By contrast, Gaza, which has been under Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas took control of the area in 2007, has received more than 80,000 vaccines. Most of them were of the Russian variety and have come from a rival of President Mahmoud Abbas based in the United Arab Emirates.

Mohammed Dahlan, who has been living in Abu Dhabi since falling out with Abbas in 2011, has secured the delivery of 60,000 shots to Gaza and promised more, embarrassing Abbas ahead of Palestinian elections planned in May.

In the West Bank, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the vaccines would go to medical workers and older people. “We are here to start the preventive vaccination drive for our people against the coronavirus,” he said.

Even with the arrival of the vaccines, the Palestinian areas lag far behind Israel, which has vaccinated some 80% of its adult population. The disparity has drawn attention to the inequities in the global distribution of vaccines between rich and poor...