Pressure in Israel to Provide Vaccines to Palestinians

Children in Gaza, where coronavirus cases exceeded 600 on Friday. EPA)
Children in Gaza, where coronavirus cases exceeded 600 on Friday. EPA)
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Pressure in Israel to Provide Vaccines to Palestinians

Children in Gaza, where coronavirus cases exceeded 600 on Friday. EPA)
Children in Gaza, where coronavirus cases exceeded 600 on Friday. EPA)

A group of six Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups have appealed to Israel's Supreme Court to demand that the state provide vaccines to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

Joining Physicians for Human Rights-Israel in the petition to the court were: HaMoked: Centre for the Defense of the Individual; Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights; Gisha – Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement; Adalah: The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel; and Rabbis for Human Rights.

In their petition, the organizations emphasize that Israel has legal, moral, and ethical obligations towards the Palestinians, deriving from its occupation and ongoing control of Gaza and the West Bank.

These duties are anchored in international law as well as Israeli jurisprudence.

The Palestinian healthcare system and economy have been subjected for many years to severe restrictions imposed by Israel, which have led to a shortage of doctors and medical supplies, and difficulty dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 50 percent (more than five million) of the Israeli population has been vaccinated. In contrast, less than 50,000 Palestinians were vaccinated (34,000 in the West Bank and 16,000 in the Gaza Strip).

Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kailah said the recovery rate in Palestine reached 89.3 percent, active cases reached 9.6 percent, and the death rate 1.1 percent of the total infections.

A total of 14 deaths were recorded in West Bank.

She pointed that 205 COVID-19 patients are receiving treatment in intensive care units, including 69 who are connected to ventilators, while 690 others are hospitalized across the West Bank.

In the Gaza Strip, 617 cases and two deaths were recorded.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”