Tel Aviv rolls out COVID-19 vaccination excluding Palestinians

The massive vaccination campaign, said to be the biggest in Israel’s history and titled “Give a Shoulder”, will not include millions of Palestinians living under Israeli control despite a recent spike in cases and deaths stemming from the virus.

This is while the Jewish settlers living in the occupied West Bank are eligible for the jab.

Netanyahu, 71, and Israel's health minister were injected with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine live on TV at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said he together with Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein receive the first jab to "serve as personal examples" and "encourage settlers to be vaccinated."

Netanyahu also said receiving the vaccine was a first step toward a return to normality, months after a second nationwide lockdown was imposed in September.

During the course of the week vaccinations will reportedly be extended to the general public, starting with those aged over 60.

This is while millions of Palestinians living under Israeli control will have to wait much longer.

Israel’s vaccination campaign will include Jewish settlers living deep inside the West Bank, who are Israeli citizens, but not the territory’s 2.5 million Palestinians.

They will have to wait for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank in accordance with interim peace agreements reached in the 1990s, to provide them.

This is while according to a Palestinian Authority report there are more than 85,000 cases in the West Bank, including more than 800 deaths, and the outbreak has intensified in recent weeks.