Israeli Health Officials To Government: Vaccinate All Palestinians

Israeli health officials have urged their country's leaders to help vaccinate the entire Palestinian population against COVID-19, citing a public health imperative, an outgoing senior health official told NPR Monday.

"This is really important, to vaccinate the entire Palestinian Authority population, and I believe it will go this way," said Itamar Grotto, who helped lead Israel's pandemic response and stepped down Monday as deputy director general of Israel's Health Ministry. "This is the recommendation of all the experts, and I believe that the politicians will follow our recommendations."

On Sunday, Israel said it would vaccinate about 110,000 Palestinian day laborers who work in Israel. In recent days, Israel has also vaccinated special categories of Palestinians, such as relatives of people who live in Jerusalem. Israel also vaccinated Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

"We are starting to give them more and more vaccines," Grotto said. "It is an important objective, from a public health point of view, and of course also from a humanitarian point of view."