Israel No Longer Wants Astrazeneca COVID-19 Vaccine, Seeks to Send Order Elsewhere

A health worker arranges vials of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at the Clalit Health Services in the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina, in the Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on March 2, 2021. (AFP)
A health worker arranges vials of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at the Clalit Health Services in the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina, in the Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on March 2, 2021. (AFP)
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Israel No Longer Wants Astrazeneca COVID-19 Vaccine, Seeks to Send Order Elsewhere

A health worker arranges vials of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at the Clalit Health Services in the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina, in the Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on March 2, 2021. (AFP)
A health worker arranges vials of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at the Clalit Health Services in the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina, in the Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on March 2, 2021. (AFP)

Israel no longer wants AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and is exploring with the company whether a big shipment in the pipeline could be sent elsewhere, Israel’s pandemic coordinator said on Wednesday.

“We are trying to find the best solution. After all, we don’t want (the vaccines) to get here and have to throw them into the trash,” the official, Nachman Ash, told Army Radio, saying Israel’s needs were being met by other suppliers.

In his remarks, Ash made no reference to AstraZeneca’s vaccine having been associated with very rare blood clots in Europe. Many countries there resumed administering it after the European Union’s drug watchdog said benefits outweighed risks, Reuters reported.

Israel cast a wide net last year when trying to secure vaccine doses at the height of the pandemic and pre-ordered from a number of companies.

It largely settled on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, launching one of the world’s swiftest rollouts. COVID-19 infections in Israel have dropped dramatically and the economy has reopened.

Israel is also buying the COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna, which uses a similar messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.

Ash said that with supplies secure through 2022, Israel no longer required the 10 million doses it agreed to purchase from AstraZeneca.

“They can certainly be used in other places in the world. At the moment, we are trying to find, along with the company, the best way to do this,” he said.

“We believe it would be best if they (the vaccines) did not come to Israel and we agree with the company on some sort of way to divert them elsewhere.”

Officials at AstraZeneca had no immediate comment.

Around 81 percent of Israeli citizens or residents over 16 - the age group eligible for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in Israel - have received both doses.

Some 167,000 of the 5.2 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza have had at least one dose of vaccine, with supplies coming in from Israel, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, the global COVAX vaccine-sharing program and China.



Pakistan Says Armed Men Kidnap, Kill Nine Bus Passengers in Restive Province

File photo: Police officers stand guard to secure a procession during the mourning month of Muharram in Karachi, Pakistan, 03 July 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
File photo: Police officers stand guard to secure a procession during the mourning month of Muharram in Karachi, Pakistan, 03 July 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
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Pakistan Says Armed Men Kidnap, Kill Nine Bus Passengers in Restive Province

File photo: Police officers stand guard to secure a procession during the mourning month of Muharram in Karachi, Pakistan, 03 July 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
File photo: Police officers stand guard to secure a procession during the mourning month of Muharram in Karachi, Pakistan, 03 July 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER

Authorities retrieved from Pakistan's mountains the bullet-ridden bodies of nine passengers kidnapped by armed men in a spate of bus attacks in the troubled southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said on Friday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Baloch separatists, agitating for a greater share of resources, have figured in similar past killings of those identified as hailing from the eastern province of Punjab, Reuters said.

Government official Naveed Alam said the bodies with bullet wounds were found in the mountains overnight, while a provincial government spokesman, Shahid Rind, said the passengers were seized from two buses on Thursday evening.

"We are identifying the bodies and reaching out to their families," he said, adding that the victims, working as laborers in the restive region, were returning home to Punjab.

Ethnic insurgents accuse Pakistan's government of stealing regional resources to fund expenditure elsewhere, mainly in the sprawling province of Punjab.

Security forces foiled three insurgent attacks on Thursday before the kidnappings, Rind said, accusing neighbor and arch rival India of backing the militants.

The Indian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

New Delhi denies accusations by Islamabad that it is funding, training and backing the militants in a bid to stoke instability in the region, where Pakistan relies on China among international investors to develop mines and mineral processing.

"India is now doubling down to further its nefarious agenda through its proxies," the Pakistani army said in a statement in remarks that followed the worst fighting in nearly three decades between the nuclear-armed foes in May.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the strongest among the insurgent groups long operating in the area bordering Afghanistan and Iran, a mineral-rich region.

In recent months, separatists have stepped up their attacks, mostly targeting Pakistan's military, which has launched an intelligence-based offensive against them.

Their other main targets have been Chinese nationals and interests, in particular the strategic port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, with the separatists accusing Beijing of helping Islamabad to exploit resources.

The BLA blew up a railway track and took over 400 train passengers hostage in an attack in March that killed 31.