Israel plans to soon transfer some 1 million Pfizer vaccine doses to the Palestinians to help them with their floundering coronavirus vaccination campaign, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office said Friday.
In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office said it would transfer doses that are about to expire, and that in exchange, in September and October, Israel would receive shipments of Pfizer vaccines that were originally meant to go to the Palestinians.
“The plan was approved based on the fact that Israel’s current vaccine stockpile is sufficient for its current needs,” the PMO statement said.
A statement from the Health Ministry said Israel would deliver between one million and 1.4 million doses, and would receive an identical number of doses in return.
The Walla news site reported that a first batch of some 100,000 doses was being transferred to the Palestinians Friday. Quoting sources in the Health Ministry, the report said the vaccines, 1.2 million doses in total, would go only to the West Bank, not the Gaza Strip.
