Israeli officials have secretly agreed to fund coronavirus vaccines for Syria in exchange for the release of an imprisoned Israeli woman for illegally entering Syria, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
Under the terms of the agreement, Israel will pay Russia, a supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to send the vaccine produced by Russia to Syria.
In an interview on Saturday, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin (Bibi) NetanyahuMORE he did not directly deny the deal, just said that no Israeli vaccine would be sent to Syria and that he was “happy” that the Israeli citizen was released.
“I will not add anything else,” said Netanyahu after thanking the Russian president Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich PutinMedia’s promotion to Governor Cuomo looks very bad now, Putin’s critic, Navalny, loses the prison sentence feature Biden calls for the creation of “rules” on cyber technology to combat threats from China and Russia MORE.
Syria and Israel do not have formal diplomatic relations and the two countries still contest the Golan Heights, which Israel conquered in the 1960s. The official announcement by the Israeli government said the woman was released in exchange for two Syrian shepherds captured by Israel, from according to the Times.
The report also comes as Israel has given at least one dose of the vaccine to about half of its population. In the meantime, only a few thousand doses have been delivered to the West Bank, where some 2.8 million Palestinians live.
The country has argued that it is not responsible for providing medical assistance to Palestinians under the terms of the Oslo Accords, while Palestinians have argued that the fourth Geneva Convention names medical assistance as one of the responsibilities of an occupying power, according to the Times.
“Israel is willing to supply vaccines to Syrians outside its borders, but at the same time it does not supply them to a huge occupied population for which they are legally responsible,” researcher Khaled Elgindy, a former Palestinian leadership adviser, told the newspaper. “This seems to send a message that they are deliberately trying to avoid their legal responsibility to look after the welfare of the employed population.
The Hill contacted Israel’s Foreign Ministry for comment.