Hospitals in the occupied West Bank are quickly running out of space, with ICU capacity already at 99 percent, as a wave of coronavirus cases threatened to engulf the Palestinian health system.
The sharp rise in cases contrasts with the exuberant re-opening of the Israeli economy, where 4m people – out of 6.7m adults – have been fully vaccinated, hospitals are quickly emptying and the number of people testing positive has dropped for two weeks in a row to about 3 per cent.
About 21,000 people are currently ill with Covid-19 in the West Bank, nearly the highest number since the beginning of the pandemic, and millions of residents were placed under a strict lockdown by the Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-rule over the major urban areas.
At least 150 of those are in serious condition, and about 50 on ventilators, according to the World Health Organization. The surge, tied to the B.1.1.7 variant, means that the Palestinian Authority is considering increasing its requests for transfers to Israeli hospitals, which the Israeli defense ministry would have to approve, according to a Palestinian official.
Israel has sent over 2,000 doses of its excess Moderna vaccine as emergency humanitarian aid, and promised another 3,000. But it has rejected any suggestions that it is obliged under international law to provide vaccines for the Palestinians that live under its occupation, saying the 1993 Oslo Accords transferred that responsibility to the Palestinian Authority.
Instead, it approved plans to vaccinate some 130,000 Palestinian workers, mostly manual labourers on construction sites, who have permits to cross checkpoints to work sites or work in settlements in the West Bank.
The West Bank has received an additional 10,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccines that the PA paid for, and the Gaza Strip received about 20,000 doses from the UAE as aid, for a total population of about 5.2m people.