Palestinians cancel deal for Israel to supply 1 million COVID vaccines

The Palestinian Authority on Friday evening dramatically announced that it was canceling a deal in which Israel would supply them with some 1 million Pfizer vaccine doses to help them with their floundering coronavirus vaccination campaign.

The PA said the doses, which Israel began shipping to the West Bank on Friday, are too close to expiring.

“The competent teams in the ministry found that the vaccines we received today from Israel did not meet the specifications, so the government decided to return them,” said PA Health Minister Mai al-Kaila.

PA government spokesman Ibrahim Milhim said that Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has ordered the cancelation of the agreement and return the vaccines to Israel. He said the Palestinians would not accept “about-to-expire” vaccines from Israel.

Palestinian officials had come under heavy criticism on social media after the agreement was announced earlier Friday, with Palestinians accusing them of accepting subpar vaccines and suggesting they might not be effective.

 There was no immediate official Israeli reaction to the cancellation, but Army Radio quoted a Health Ministry official as expressing incredulity.

“We don’t know what they want, the vaccines are fine,” the official said.

In announcing the agreement, Israel said the vaccines “will expire soon” without specifying the date....

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.

A first batch of some 100,000 doses was transferred to the Palestinians on Friday.

The Israeli military’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which administers Palestinian civilian affairs, said it had been working for several weeks to sign a deal with the Palestinian Authority. ...

(REUTERS  reported  ...The doses were due to "expire soon", Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's office said in a statement announcing the deal. The PA said they had been "approved in order to speed up the vaccination process" in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

("They told us the expiration date was in July or August, which would allow lots of time for use," PA Health Minister Mai Alkaila told reporters later on Friday.

 ("But (the expiration) turned out to be in June. That's not enough time to use them, so we rejected them," she said.

(The PA cancelled the deal over the date issue, a PA spokesman said, and sent the initial shipment of around 90,000 doses back to Israel.)