Israel Stores Thousands of "Moderna" Vaccines, Prevents Vaccination of Palestinians

"Bloomberg" a US  news agency reported that Israel, which is conducting a large-scale vaccination campaign against the Coronavirus ( known by the World  Organization (WHO)  as COVID-19), with the vaccines produced by either  "Pfizer" and "Biontech", companies, is keeping a huge shipment of "Moderna" vaccine without using it so far.

The Israeli authorities put this shipment on the shelf and refused to use it without unveiled reasons.

The agency quoted in a report published by Eli Gilad, a high-level Israeli official concerned with fighting Corona in the Israeli Ministry of Health, as saying that the largest part of the only shipment of "Moderna" vaccine that the Hebrew state received in January (which includes 100,000 doses) is still in a cold store in somewhere in the country.

The official explained that the available quantities of the "Moderna" vaccine are very small compared to the millions of doses of the "Pfizer" and "Biontech" vaccine received by the Israeli government, and therefore "it is not worth" to start using the "Moderna" vaccine.

"Bloomberg" indicated that this comes at a time when many countries are facing tangible problems in obtaining vaccines against Coronaز

The Israeli government is exposed to widespread international criticism for not vaccinating Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel has delivered to the Palestinian Authority (PA) only two thousand doses of the "Moderna" vaccine so far, with the aim of vaccinating medical personnel, and it is expected that another 3,000 doses will be delivered later. However, in general, Tel Aviv ignores calls to vaccinate Palestinians even behind the Greenline.

In addition, Israeli Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kish acknowledged that a campaign to vaccinate Palestinians working in Israel is not expected to start in the near future.

An Israeli official, who refused to be named, also confirmed to "Bloomberg" that Tel Aviv is postponing the date of receiving a shipment of vaccines intended for it under an international program supported by the United Nations.