The Palestinian NGOs Network confirmed that Israel is obligated to provide the Palestinian people with coronavirus vaccine under international law and covenants for the population under occupation.

This came during a meeting via Zoom application, which included representatives of several diplomatic missions and international institutions operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The meeting dealt with the consequences of the spread of Coronavirus and the obligations of Israel, the occupying power, towards the health care that must be provided under international law.

The leader of the National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouti, said that the government launched a vaccination campaign at the end of last January after obtaining vaccinations, noting that death rates are among the highest all over the world compared to the population.

"One of the cruel violations is that 14 million doses of vaccine arrived in Israel and they were provided to more than 750 thousand settlers, while the Palestinian citizens were deprived of the vaccine," Barghouti indicated.

Besides, he accused Israel of destroying the vaccine due to the expiration of the period available for delivering it, according to the medical protocol stipulated by the World Health Organization.

An official in Al-Haq Defending Human Rights Organization, Suha Jarrar, confirmed that international law and the Geneva Conventions of 1949 stipulate the right of the Palestinian people under occupation and ensure that they receive the vaccine from Israel, the occupying power, as articles of international law are more binding than the Convention Oslo.

She stressed that articles of the law also require working to provide international protection. Articles 55, 14, and 56 of this agreement guarantee the provision of necessary health care, and what Israel is doing is nothing, but serious violations of international law.

She referred to the status of the female prisoners and detainees in the Israeli prisons, explaining that about 70% of them received the vaccine after the success of the international pressure on Israel to present it, but it was without international supervision.

She pointed out that the mechanism that workers will be received the vaccine by which is still unknown, stressing that the policy of discrimination and skipping from international agreements, including economic, social, and cultural rights, amounts to crimes under international laws.

For his part, the International Advocacy Coordinator and Policy Adviser in the Network, Samer Al-Daoudi, stressed that the participation of representatives of diplomatic missions in the Palestinian territory and international institutions carries many meanings for concerted efforts at the international level to confront the pandemic and its consequences on the health level and its devastating effects on the economy.

He stressed the importance of coordination between civil society institutions to confront the virus.