RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israel said on Monday it supplied the Palestinians with their first shipment of COVID-19 shots, totalling 2,000 doses of Moderna’s vaccine.
The vaccines were transferred into the occupied West Bank and will be used by Palestinian Authority medical teams, according to a statement by COGAT, Israel’s military liaison to the Palestinians.
A Palestinian official confirmed the delivery without disclosing any further details.
Israel has earmarked an additional 3,000 doses for the Palestinians, said a COGAT official.
Israel has emerged as a world leader in vaccinating its citizens and the Palestinian Authority has separately been trying to secure its own doses. It has ordered a batch of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.
The Palestinians will also be receiving upwards of 35,000 to 40,000 vaccines from the COVAX global vaccine sharing programme in the coming weeks, a World Health Organization official said on Monday.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East…