JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel paid Russia $ 1.2 million to provide the Syrian government with coronavirus vaccines as part of an agreement that guaranteed the release of an Israeli woman held in captivity in Damascus, according to Israeli media reports on Sunday.
The terms of the Moscow-orchestrated clandestine trade-off between the two nations remained unclear. But the fact that Israel is supplying vaccines to Syria – an enemy country that hosts hostile Iranian forces – has drawn criticism at home and contrasts with Israel’s refusal to supply significant quantities of vaccines to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that “no Israeli vaccine” was involved in the deal. He did not say whether Israel paid for the Russian vaccines and said that Russia insists that the details of the exchange remain secret.
Netanyahu’s office declined to comment, and many details of the deal remained censored.
Labor Party leader Merav Michaeli called on the Knesset’s defense and foreign affairs committee to discuss Netanyahu’s deal and “inappropriate and political use of censorship”.
“Why do Israeli citizens constantly need to learn about the foreign media things that their prime minister is hiding from them?” she said on Israel’s Kan radio on Sunday.
Israel announced on Friday that it had reached a Russian-mediated agreement to bring home a young woman who crossed the border into Syria earlier this month. In return, Israel said it released two Syrian pastors who had entered Israeli territory.
Netanyahu boasted that his warm ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin helped close the deal. His office made no mention of any vaccine payment agreement for Syria.
Israeli reports said Israel paid for an undisclosed number of doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. The Russian Direct Investment Fund, which financed the development of Sputnik V, said in November that it would cost less than $ 10 per dose internationally.
The Syrian state news agency has denied that the deal exists.
The released 25-year-old Israeli returned to Israel via Moscow and was questioned by Israel’s internal security agency. It comes from Modiin Illit’s predominantly ultra-Orthodox settlement in the West Bank and previously tried to cross Israel’s borders with the Gaza Strip and Jordan, according to Israeli media.
The woman reportedly crossed into Syrian territory from the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981, a movement not widely recognized internationally. His identity and motivation for crossing Syria have not been released by Israeli authorities.
Gideon Saar, a former ally of Netanyahu who is running to remove him in the next Israeli elections, said on Sunday that “the government’s censure of something that Damascus and Moscow know, and Israeli citizens do not, is incomprehensible”.
Israel and Syria remain in an official state of war and Israeli citizens are officially prohibited from visiting Syria.
Israel’s archenemy, Iran, has sent troops to support Syrian President Bashar Assad against rebel groups. Israel considers Iran’s entrenchment on its northern border as a red line and has carried out hundreds of air strikes against Iran-related facilities and alleged arms convoys targeted at the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Israel provided some humanitarian aid to groups not affiliated with Assad and provided medical treatment to thousands of Syrians who reached the Golan Heights border.
Netanyahu’s reported deal to pay for vaccines to an enemy country contrasts with his refusal to supply large quantities of vaccines to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, drawing protests from human rights organizations.
The disparities between the success of Israel’s vaccination with its own population and the Palestinians have drawn criticism from UN officials and human rights groups and have illuminated the inequalities between rich and poor countries in access to vaccines.
These groups claim that Israel is responsible for vaccinating Palestinians, while Israel argues that it is not responsible for vaccinating them and that, under interim peace agreements signed in the 1990s, the internationally supported Palestinian Authority must vaccinate its own population. Israel’s vaccination campaign included its own Arab population.
The Palestinian Authority has not publicly asked for Israel’s help, saying it is purchasing vaccines on its own and through a World Health Organization for the poorest nations. But earlier this month, Israel agreed to share 2,000 vaccines with Palestinians to inoculate medical workers in the West Bank.
Ahmad Tibi, a legislator on the Joint List of Arab parties in Israel’s Knesset, wrote on Twitter on Friday: “Should we expect a Jew to cross the border with Gaza to deserve vaccines?”