The Palestinian Authority and Israeli officials denied a report of a plan to open a vaccination complex on the Temple Mount.
A KAN News report claimed that Israeli officials had sent a request to the PA and the (Jerusalem) Wakf Islamic religious trust asking to erect a coronavirus vaccine complex on the Temple Mount to inoculate Palestinian worshipers but that the request was denied due to opposition by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
An official from the PA and a senior official with the Jordanian-controlled administration of Jerusalem’s Wakf and al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs said they were unaware of any such request.
The Health Ministry spokesperson said Health Minister Yuli Edelstein was unaware of such a request and that it is not customary for the PA to be involved in matters regarding Israel and the Temple Mount.
The Foreign Ministry said it had no knowledge of such a request and the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) referred the question to the Health Ministry.
Magen David Adom in conjunction with the Home Front Command, the Health Ministry and the Jerusalem Municipality, however, does plan to set up a COVID-19 vaccination center by the Old City’s Damascus Gate, in hopes of attracting Friday worshipers heading to the Temple Mount. The vaccination center is only open to those with Israeli citizenship or for Palestinians who have a Jerusalem residency card.
Israel agreed to supply 5,000 vaccines to medical personnel in the PA, a decision that according to Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday “came following due process and in light of an evident medical imperative for Israel.”
Earlier this month, Dr. Asher Salmon, head of the Department of International Relations at the Health Ministry, said during a session at the Knesset that according to the Oslo and Paris accords, the PA is responsible for the health of the residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. However, he said that Israel would try to assist the PA as much as possible for both humanitarian and epidemiological reasons.
“Due to the frequent movement of the Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria, and the entry of Gaza residents for different reasons, we will not be able to control the pandemic without the help of the vaccines,” he said.
According to Col. Eyal Zeevi, who heads the operations department for COGAT and also spoke at the Knesset, aside from Israel’s 5,000 doses, some 10,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccines had been transferred to the PA. Some 37,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine are set to be provided via the World Health Organization’s COVAX program, he said, and another 405,000 AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to be delivered sometime between March and July.
Israel has already vaccinated more than 4.6 million citizens with at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and another more than 3.2 million with both doses.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Wakf urged Muslim worshipers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“We believe that the rising infections require us to raise the frequency of preventive and precautionary restrictions to maintain public safety,” the statement read. “The vaccines will guarantee putting an end to this epidemic.”
Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.