An Israeli flag is pictured near the minaret of a mosque at an Israeli settlement in the the old city of the West Bank town of Hebron on June 14, 2019. (Photo credit HAZEM BADER/AFP/Getty Images) A May 7 report from The Jerusalem Post chronicled how the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority (PA) have been cooperating with each other during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report highlights documents from the Israeli Health Ministry and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT); the documents released in response to a petition calling for more Israeli COVID-19 aid to the Palestinians.
The documents stated that Israel has donated 1,950 COVID-19 testing kits and 2,400 testing swabs to the Palestinians thus far; Israeli medical personnel in Magen David Adom — Israel’s emergency service — and Sheba Medical Center also have provided training to Palestinian doctors on how to handle COVID-19 patients.
Additionally, Israel keeps the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the loop on Palestinians that enter the West Bank from Israel or Jordan that need to be quarantined for two weeks to ensure they’re not infected with COVID-19. Israel also informs the PA on any Palestinians residing in Israel who have contracted the virus.
Israeli aid was used toward a hospital in the Gaza Strip that specifically treats COVID-19 patients; Israel has a team ready in case a mass outbreak occurs in Gaza.
According to the Post, the documents state there are further cooperation efforts between the Israelis and the Palestinians that can’t be revealed “out of concern for harming Israel’s human relations.”
However, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, the organization that filed the petition, argued that Israel needed to provide more aid to the Palestinians to better address the shortage of medical supplies in the West Bank and Gaza.
“In order to ensure that the crisis that already exists in Gaza does not deteriorate into a humanitarian crisis, we must significantly increase the amount of aid and do so transparently,” Physicians for Human Rights Israel CEO Ran Goldstein said.
In March, the PA acknowledged that it formed a joint operations room with Israel on the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 25, Israel facilitated the delivery 3,000 test kits and 50,000 masks from the World Health Organization to the West Bank.
“Once more, COGAT is cooperating closely with the World Health Organization to make assistance possible in the Palestinian Authority’s struggle against the coronavirus outbreak,” COGAT Maj. Gen. Kamil Abu Rukun said in a statement at the time. “I commend the teamwork of the international organizations in this important shared endeavor, I wish steady good health to all the residents of the region, and I hope that we will continue to work together in the fight to halt the spread of this dangerous virus.”
However, PA spokesperson Ibrahim Milhem downplayed Israeli COVID-19 aid in April, accusing the Jewish state of being “agents of this [COVID-19] epidemic.”
“They are raiding Palestinian cities and villages. Do they call this assistance?” he added. “They open tunnels to allow workers [to return from Israel to the West Bank]. Is this the assistance they are talking about? They are throwing infected workers at the side of the road. Is this assistance? They come and arrest and spit in the streets. Is this assistance?”
PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has also accused Israeli soldiers of intentionally trying to infect Palestinians with the virus.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center tweeted in April, “Beneath contempt, [Palestinian] leaders have zero interest in or capacity for peace and reconciliation.”
Corrupt pay-to-slay PA like Hamas in Gaza offer Palestinians not hope, but lies, not policies to deal with new virus but heavy dose of oldest virus—Jew hatred. Beneath contempt, leaders have zero interest in or capacity for peace and reconciliation. https://t.co/qzqn0ex2Jb
— SimonWiesenthalCntr (@simonwiesenthal) April 13, 2020
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