Gaza Receives Donation Of 20,000 Sputnik V Covid-19 Vaccine Doses From UAE

Gaza Receives Donation Of 20,000 Sputnik V Covid-19 Vaccine Doses From UAE.

GAZA received around 20,000 coronavirus vaccine doses from the UAE on Sunday, Feb. 21. It is understood that the delivery was orchestrated by a rival of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas three months before the scheduled Palestinian elections.

The Russian-made Sputnik V doses entered Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, AFP journalists said — meaning they did not pass through Israel, which has maintained a tight blockade on Gaza since 2007.

Last week, Mohammed Dahlan, a former top member of Abbas’s Fatah party now exiled in the United Arab Emirates, announced the delivery of the vaccines as a “generous grant” from Abu Dhabi.

Dahlan, currently a security adviser to UAE strongman Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, has claimed credit for the delivery, which some Palestinians are seeing as a political move ahead of May and July legislative and presidential polls.

A statement Sunday from a dissident branch of the Fatah party Dahlan controls said the vaccines were for “medical teams” in Gaza, which has not yet begun a general vaccination campaign.

That shipment was sent by the PA from the occupied West Bank through Israel, although it had initially blocked its delivery to Gaza.

The Israeli military department responsible for civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories (COGAT) has said that it requires “political” instructions before allowing vaccines into the coastal enclave, where Israel has fought three wars against Hamas since 2008.

Both Hamas and the PA have accused Israel of violating international law by stemming the free flow of vaccines into Gaza.

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