[Atlantis]

Israel is living in a law-less pre-Geneva convention world in which the occupier ruthlessly suppresses the natives.

Palestinians excluded from Israeli Covid vaccine rollout as jabs go to settlers

Human rights groups accuse Israel of dodging obligations to millions in occupied territories who may wait months for vaccination

Israel is celebrating an impressive, record-setting vaccination drive, having given initial jabs of coronavirus shots to more than a 10th of the population. But Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza can only watch and wait.

As the world ramps up what is already on track to become a highly unequal vaccination push – with people in richer nations first to be inoculated – the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories provides a stark example of the divide.

Israel transports batches of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine deep inside the West Bank. But they are only distributed to Jewish settlers, and not the roughly 2.7 million Palestinians living around them who may have to wait for weeks or months.

“I don’t know how, but there must be a way to make us a priority, too?” said Mahmoud Kilani, a 31-year-old sports coach from the Palestinian city of Nablus. “Who cares about us? I don’t think anybody is stuck on that question.”

Two weeks into its vaccination campaign, Israel is administering more than 150,000 doses a day, amounting to initial jabs for more than 1 million of its 9 million citizens – a higher proportion of the population than anywhere else.

Vaccine centres have been set up in sports stadiums and central squares. People over 60, healthcare workers, carers and high-risk populations have priority, while young, healthier people who walk into clinics are sometimes rewarded with surplus stock to avoid the waste of unused vials.

The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has told Israelis that the country could be the first to emerge from the pandemic. As well as a highly advanced healthcare system, part of the reason for the speed could be economics. A health ministry official said the country had paid $62 a dose, compared with the $19.50 the US is paying.

Meanwhile, the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, which maintains limited self-rule in the territories, is rushing to get vaccines. One official suggested, perhaps optimistically, that shots could arrive within the next two weeks.

However, when asked for a timeframe, Ali Abed Rabbo, director-general of the Palestinian health ministry, estimated the first vaccines would probably arrive in February.

Those would be through a World Health Organization-led partnership called Covax, aimed at helping poorer countries, which has pledged to vaccinate 20% of Palestinians. Yet vaccines intended for Covax have not yet gained “emergency use” approval by the WHO, a precondition for distribution to begin.

Gerald Rockenschaub, the head of office at WHO Jerusalem, said it could be “early to mid-2021” before vaccines on the Covax scheme were available for distribution in the Palestinian territories.

The rest of the doses are expected to come through deals with pharmaceutical companies, but none have apparently been signed so far.

Despite the delay, the authority has not officially asked for help from Israel. Coordination between the two sides halted last year after the Palestinian president cut off security ties for several months.

But Rabbo said “sessions” with Israel had been held. “Until this moment, there is no agreement, and we cannot say there is anything practical on the ground in this regard,” he said.

Israeli officials have suggested they might provide surplus vaccines to Palestinians and claim they are not responsible for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, pointing to 1990s-era interim agreements that required the authority to observe international vaccination standards.

Those deals envisioned a fuller peace agreement within five years, an event that never occurred. Almost three decades later, Israeli, Palestinian and international rights groups have accused Israel of dodging moral, humanitarian and legal obligations as an occupying power during the pandemic.

Gisha, an Israeli rights group, said Palestinian efforts so far to look elsewhere for vaccines “does not absolve Israel from its ultimate responsibility toward Palestinians under occupation”.

The disparities could potentially see Israelis return to some form of normality within the first three months of this year, while Palestinians remain trapped by the virus. That may have a negative impact on Israel’s goal of herd immunity, as thousands of West Bank Palestinians work in Israel and the settlements, which could keep infection rates up.

In Gaza, an impoverished enclave under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, the timeframe could be even longer than in the West Bank. The strip’s Islamist rulers, Hamas, have been unable to contain the virus and are enemies with Israel and political rivals with the Palestinian Authority.

Salama Ma’rouf, head of the Hamas-run Gaza press office, estimated vaccines would arrive “within two months”, adding that there was coordination with the WHO and the Palestinian Authority.

Heba Abu Asr, 35, a resident of Gaza, jolted when asked how she felt about others getting the vaccine first. “Are you seriously trying to compare us with Israel or any other country?” she asked. “We can’t find work, food, or drink. We are under threat all the time. We do not even have any necessities for life.”

[Oxymoron]

Israel is living in a law-less pre-Geneva convention world in which the occupier ruthlessly suppresses the natives.

Palestinians excluded from Israeli Covid vaccine rollout as jabs go to settlers

Why would they not give their citizens priority? Palestinians the way the act, are lucky to be even considered.

[noemon]

1 million Israelis given Pfizer/Bio vaccine, 1 million Brits given Pfizer/Bio vaccine, 4 million Americans given Pfizer/Bio vaccine to date.

0 Germans given Pfizer vaccine due to EU procurement failures, lack of money and regulatory delays.

[JohnRawls]

1 million Israelis given Pfizer/Bio vaccine, 1 million Brits given Pfizer/Bio vaccine, 4 million Americans given Pfizer/Bio vaccine to date.

0 Germans given Pfizer vaccine due to EU procurement failures, lack of money and regulatory delays.

Not really true and you know that.

[noemon]

I took the figures from here that are in turn taken by Germany's own major newspapers.

I do not understand why you say "I know that". It's annoying though. Sure I know that instead of 0, it has 175k Germans having taken it, but that is still 0 essentially.

[JohnRawls]

I took the figures from here that are in turn taken by Germany's own major newspapers.

I do not understand why you say "I know that". It's annoying though. Sure I know that instead of 0, it has 175k Germans having taken it, but that is still 0 essentially.

Estonia already vaccinated thousands and we are part of the EU. And Estonia is a relatively small and irrelevant place.

[Rancid]

I just want to say that I think its cute that the British say "jab" for the shot.

[pugsville]

1 million Israelis given Pfizer/Bio vaccine, 1 million Brits given Pfizer/Bio vaccine, 4 million Americans given Pfizer/Bio vaccine to date.

0 Germans given Pfizer vaccine due to EU procurement failures, lack of money and regulatory delays.

None of the vaccine have passed regularity approval, those rolling out vaccines are doing so under emergency provisions. Depends how desperate the Nation is and the state of the virus in that country.

That the Birts and US went first is more about the state of play with the virus in their nation rather than anything else. Given their health systems are on teh brink, they have little to lose taking an early risk on a vaccine.

Here in Australia for insistence, why would we rush to roll out a vaccine now? Those nations rolling out a emergency program will provide a lot of useful information and how the vaccine well works, and how best to do it. If a nations in a good position to wait them waiting and watching the outcome in these states doing the emergency roll outs is just smart.

[Atlantis]

That the Birts and US went first is more about the state of play with the virus in their nation rather than anything else.

True, GB is turning into plague island and Brits are banned from visiting most countries because the populist government let the virus run out of control due to ineffective populist measures. That's why it mutated in the UK, which poses a threat to us all.

The UK regulator rubber-stamped the Biontech/Pfizer vaccine one day after phase 3 results were announced to allow the government an orgy of vaccine jingoism and EU-bashing. In the US, Trump threatened to fire the head of the FDA if he didn't approve the vaccine immediately.

The US and the UK rubber-stamped the vaccine without proper review and had to waive manufacturer liability. The EU's EMA did a proper review, which was accelerated by doing a rolling review from Oct. 1st and by using parallel teams. The EMA did not wave manufacturer liability either.

The EU was very successful by developing and producing advanced vaccines and by coordinating vaccine procurement. By trying to undercut European competitors with deregulations, the UK hopes to gain a short-term competitive advantage and snatch vaccines from other countries. That is the Brexit philosophy.

Even Americans are starting to get irritated about British jingoism, which can't cover the UK's complete failure:

- the UK selected the wrong technology
- the phase 3 trial was faulty
- to get EU and US approval the British have to repeat the trial
- the efficacity of the British vaccine is too low
- the new British variant risks to reduce efficacity further
- the British use an untested 1-shot vaccination strategy
- the untested vaccination will further reduce efficacity
- partial immunity in the UK will allow the virus to evade vaccines

We will all have to pay the price for the recklessness of British populism.

The vaccination is a good example of the race to the bottom the ultra-free-marketeer Brexit leaders want to use to gain a short term PR success at the expense of the rest of us.

It has opened the eyes of Europe's Anglophiles who believe that everything that comes from the UK must be pure gold.

[Potemkin]

The vaccination is a good example of the race to the bottom the ultra-free-marketeer Brexit leaders want to use to gain a short term PR success at the expense of the rest of us.

It's called "capitalism", @Atlantis - the whole idea is to destroy one's competitors in the marketplace, sometimes by literally killing them. Lol.

It has opened the eyes of Europe's Anglophiles who believe that everything that comes from the UK must be pure gold.

I've been warning the world (well, okay, just PoFo) about the true nature of the British ruling elite for decades now.

[noemon]

@Potemkin dude please....Atlantis I can understand, but you...

All the regulators will approve the same vaccine, the ones being faster are getting it faster than the ones being slower. Not really rocket science. In Germany there is massive outcry that the "German vaccine" is delayed so much.

The Covid variant identified in Britain is because Britain accounts on its own for about half of global genetic sequencing for Covid-19. Britain is the world's genome sequencing library for Covid-19.

How UK was able to detect new coronavirus variant so quickly
Despite mounting concern over what lies ahead, UK has been praised for the speed at which it was able to detect, analyse and act against this variant

The emergence of a new variant in the UK was first announced by the government last week. A total of 1,108 cases associated with the mutated version had been detected, health secretary Matt Hancock told Parliament on 14 December. At the time, scientists warned it was “something to keep an eye on”.

Five days later, and following the emergence of new data presented to No 10, London and the surrounding regions have since been placed into tier 4 restrictions in a bid to arrest the alarming spread of the variant, which is thought to be 70 per cent more infectious than the original virus.

Despite mounting concern over what lies ahead, the UK has been praised for the speed at which it was able to detect, analyse and act against this variant – called VUI 202012/01 – with the World Health Organisation notably thanking British scientists for their efforts.

The Covid-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium has been central to this work. At the start of the pandemic, the government invested £20m into the establishment of the body with the goal of sequencing as many Sars-CoV-2 viral genomes as fast as possible.

This process allows scientists to unravel the tangled genetic fabric of the virus and understand how it is ordered. The more scientists are able to know about the wiring, structures and codes that make up Sars-CoV-2, the better placed they are to make informed decisions regarding treatments, vaccine development and infection control.

In the nine months that have passed, COG-UK has shown its value in decoding more than 150,000 different genome sequences of the virus – a “colossal achievement”, says professor Sharon Peacock, director of the consortium.

Few other countries have come close to matching the UK’s output. Professor Peacock says the country is responsible for “about half” the world’s genome sequencing data, meaning that “if you’re going to find anything [of interest], you’re going to find it here first”.

To put it into perspective: the Welsh branch of COG-UK had sequenced roughly 4,000 genomes of Sars-CoV-2 over the past seven days – more than the whole of France has managed throughout the pandemic, according to Tom Connor, a professor at Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences.

“We are sequencing in the UK at a disproportionate rate to other people which means that we have a much better surveillance system for catching this,” he says.

“We know the virus is going to mutate and evolve. We must expect it’s going to evolve to transmit better in the population, as that's what evolution does. We have the infrastructure in place to detect when that’s happening from a genomic perspective and ask searching questions as a result.”

He warned that similar variants could be “popping up around the world” but, due to a lack of localised sequencing, are flying under the radar of health authorities.

The surveillance findings of COG-UK and its 200 partners, which are passed on to the government and the UK’s public health bodies, have therefore played a vital role in facilitating the identification of new virus variants – which is where VUI 202012/01 comes into the picture.

“It makes sense that it was detected first in the UK because they have probably the world’s best surveillance program,” says Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security in the US.

VUI 202012/01 was first identified in October from a sample taken the month before, according to Public Health England (PHE).

Online lab records suggest the first detected case of the virus was picked up in the government's Lighthouse Lab in Milton Keynes on 20 September, while PHE said that the person who provided the swab was from Kent.

Prior to the second lockdown, health officials were aware that something wasn’t quite right in the southeast region because cases were rising much faster than elsewhere in the country – despite the introduction of the tiered restrictions. As the second wave took hold, authorities began to investigate.

“We first saw [the variant] in samples which originated in September, as part of a look-back process,” says Prof Connor. He adds that it’ll prove near impossible to fully establish whether this mutated version of the virus was “introduced from somewhere else or evolved locally”.

At the time the first sample was recorded, the UK was averaging just 3,700 positive tests per day. By the start of November, the average number of positive results had jumped to 23,000 per day. Later that month, the mutated version is thought to have caused roughly 28 per cent of cases in London and other parts of southeast England.

The closed entrance to the Port of Dover. France has closed its border with the UK for 48 hours over concerns about the new coronavirus variant. Freight lorries cannot cross by sea or through the Eurotunnel and the Port of Dover has closed to outbound traffic.

From there, it has continued to spread at a rapid rate. Figures show that in the week up to 9 December, 62 per cent of cases and 34 per cent of hospitalisations across the capital were linked to the new variant. Similar rises driven by VUI 202012/01 were reported in the surrounding regions.

Thankfully, scientists in the UK have benefited from a stroke of good fortune that has aided efforts to keep track of the variant’s growth throughout the four nations.

“One of the mutations in this variant, by coincidence, makes it possible to recognise it in some of the PCR tests that are used in community-based testing in the UK,” says Dr Jeffrey Barrett, lead Covid-19 statistical geneticist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

“That signal we can see much more immediately than the sequence-based data and that means we have a little more up-to-date data that is more comprehensive.”

Essentially, one of the 23 mutations associated with this variant causes the deletion of a certain gene in the virus’ spike protein, which is targeted by a variety of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests used throughout the country.

Despite this diagnostics “blindspot”, the tests are still capable of detecting Sars-CoV-2, and the absence of the S gene – as it’s called – has actually provided authorities with a means of distinguishing between the different variants of coronavirus that are circulating within the population.

Professor Peacock said the “S-gene drop-out” was “very fortuitous” in providing a marker for those tracking the spread of VUI 202012/01.

Although the UK’s genomics network was well-placed to pick up this new variant, more analysis is needed to answer some of the questions that surround it.

The estimated transmissibility of this latest mutated version is based on government modelling and has not been confirmed in lab experiments, according to Muge Cevik, an infectious disease expert the University of St Andrews.

Testing is also under way to determine whether the Covid-19 vaccines in development will be able to induce an immune response against the variant – though current evidence suggests this will be the case, with scientists and government officials “confident” that the jabs won’t be affected.

In the meantime, COG-UK will continue to do what it does best: keep a close eye on the virus and watch it how it shifts and changes in the months to come. “That's why we were set up,” says Dr Peacock. “That will be useful technology going forward as this won’t be the last mutation we're concerned about. It's going to be an ongoing story.”

[Potemkin]

I just want to say that I think its cute that the British say "jab" for the shot.

I just want to say that I think its cute that the Mexicans say "shot" for the jab.

[Atlantis]

It's called "capitalism", @Atlantis - the whole idea is to destroy one's competitors in the marketplace, sometimes by literally killing them. Lol.

This is the Social Darwinist view of capitalism. It's US-style monopoly capitalism that's the offspring of Anglo Imperialism. The Social Market Economy can be regulated to avoid these pitfalls.

I used to work in the satellite business. It's a high risk business and a single launch failure could cost hundreds of millions. We had a high market share, but we never wanted to destroy our competitors. Quite on the contrary, a healthy competition is needed for the business to prosper. We never rejoiced about the launch failures of the competition because each failure would reduce trust in the industry as a whole and increase the insurance fees, we all had to pay.

That's just to say that your idea of market competition is erroneous. You view everything in terms of Marxist theory while ignoring that the decisions of the imperial powers have far greater impact on the economy than any supposedly inherent workings of the market economy. The market economy can be regulated any which way we want.

[Roofgardener]

Ummm.. the Palestinian Authority should be responsible for getting the Vaccine (and innoculating its population), not Israel ? In addition, Israel has ZERO responsibility to the Gaza Strip; that is not under its control.

Of course, Israel COULD come to an agreement with the PA to help in the West Bank, but ... the PA cancelled and forswore ALL agreements and co-operation with Israel back in May ?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/20/palestinian-leader-mahmoud-abbas-ends-security-agreement-with-israel-and-us

Before everyone starts criticising Israel, it is also worth pointing out that the PA has not formally REQUESTED help from Israel regarding vaccinations ?

Mind you, the Geneva Convention muddies the waters here somewhat. Is the West Bank under PA control, or is it still "occupied territories" ?

[Atlantis]

Israel rebuffs WHO vaccine request for Palestinian medics, amid outcry over disparity

Israel has refused a request from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to immediately make Covid-19 vaccines available to Palestinian medical workers to avert a health disaster, citing shortages of the jabs for their own citizens.

The refusal comes amid growing criticism from rights groups of the massive discrepancy between the vaccine rollout in Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza, given Israel’s legal obligations as an occupying power.

Israel has broken global records for the speediness of its inoculation programme, which started on 20 December and up to Friday has seen 1.7 million Israelis – or over 18 percent of the total population – vaccinated.

While Israel has provided vaccines for Palestinians living in east Jerusalem, by contrast no citizen or medic has received jabs among the nearly 5 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, where the battered and impoverished healthcare systems are struggling to cope with the soaring caseload.

Citing the Fourth Geneva Convention, rights groups including Amnesty have accused Israel of “institutionalised discrimination” and of ignoring its international obligations to immediately ensure Covid-19 vaccines are equally and fairly distributed to Palestinians living under occupation.

Gerald Rockenschaub, the head of the WHO’s mission to the Palestinians, told The Independent the UN body had requested that Israel help provide Covid-19 jabs to cover Palestininan health workers; nearly 8,000 Palestinian medics have reportedly been infected by the virus, impacting their coronavirus response.

He said that Israel had declined the request for now, citing issues with shortages for their own population.

Health officials within the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA) told The Independent they had lodged a similar request, asking Israel to sell them 10,000 jabs for their medics in order to avert a health disaster during the month-long wait for vaccines from the WHO’s Covax programme and vaccine companies.

“We have tried to explore whether an unusual batch of vaccines could be made available from the Israeli side in light of the substantial discrepancy [in inoculations],” Mr Rockenschaub told The Independent.

“We have a substantial number of health workers that are infected. It would make a big difference to have the 10,000 jabs to ensure that the healthcare system doesn’t collapse and can operate,” he added.

“The feedback is that [Israel] have shortages of their own and they can’t provide any until a later stage,” he said.

He added that it “should be in the interest of Israel” to put every effort into ensuring the Palestinian population is adequately vaccinated and that the discrepancy does not continue. In particular, he cited the daily movement of at least 140,000 Palestinian workers between the territories and Israel as one reason why the inoculation of the Palestinian population was an Israeli public health concern.

“Over 1.5 million Israelis have received their vaccines, while on the other side zero have, except for those Palestinians living in east Jerusalem,” he said.

“We see people dying from coronavirus every day on both sides. It is essential to ensure global solidarity and access to vaccines for everybody because no one is safe until everyone is protected.”

More than 146,000 Palestinians have been infected with the coronavirus and more than 1,550 have died. On 31 December, 15 Covid-related deaths were reported in Gaza, the highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic, according to the WHO.

Meanwhile, there have been more than 470,000 cases recorded in Israel, with over 3,500 deaths.

Israel has received worldwide praise for the efficiency of its vaccination programme and is on track to becoming the first country to completely inoculate its population.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced on Thursday that with the latest procurement of Pfizer vaccines they would be able to inoculate all their citizens over the age of 16 by the end of March.

The Israelis have vehemently denied accusations of discrimination and Israeli officials have blamed the PA for not seeking cooperation with the Israeli government to procure and distribute the vaccines.

Israel’s health minister, Yuli Edelstein, reportedly said last week that while it was in their interest to ensure that the spread of the virus was halted among the Palestinians, Israel’s first responsibility was to its own citizens.

The country’s deputy health minister, Yoav Kisch, said on Thursday that they may consider offering any vaccine surplus to the PA at a later stage.

Israeli commentators, meanwhile, have argued that Israel has no obligation to vaccinate the Palestinians and have even dismissed media reports on the discrepancy as antisemitic attacks.

The Israelis cite the Oslo Accords, the interim peace agreements signed by the Israelis and Palestinians in the 1990s, as the reason why the Palestinians are responsible for their own health response. Under the agreement, the PA is required to maintain international vaccination standards and for both sides to exchange information and cooperate in combating epidemics.

But 18 Israeli, Palestinian and international health and human rights organisations penned a statement last month highlighting Israel’s legal and moral obligations.

The communique cites Article 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which provides that the occupier has the duty of ensuring “the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics”.

It is both a legal and a moral obligation

Hadas Ziv, director of ethics and content at Physicians for Human Rights Israel
They said this duty for Israel includes providing support for the purchase and distribution of quality vaccines to the Palestinian population under its control.

Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories since 1967 and has imposed a crippling 13-year long blockade on Gaza, after the Hamas militant group violently seized control of the tiny strip that is home to nearly 2 million people.

In Gaza, the ravaged healthcare system is suffering from chronic shortages of electricity and all medicines because of those restrictions. Mr Rockenschaub, of the WHO, said the agency had provided an additional 50 intensive care unit beds but that the Gazans were struggling amid medical staff shortages and ancient oxygen supplies systems that urgently needed replacing.

Except for the Egypt-Gaza crossing, Israel controls all the borders – and consequently all imports – into the Palestinian territories. The Palestinians also lack sufficient refrigeration facilities to store the vaccines.

All of this means the Palestinian vaccine programme is inextricably tied to coordination with and assistance from the Israelis.

Mr Rockenschaub said that they were already in talks with the Israeli ministry of health and Cogat – the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli military unit that deals with civilian needs in the West Bank and Gaza – to ensure the smooth delivery and distribution of vaccines when they do arrive.

Medical and rights groups have gone a step further, urging Israel to immediately ensure quality vaccines be provided to Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and control, saying failure to do so was part of systemic abuses.

“Israel's responsibility stems from its prolonged occupation and control of almost all aspects of lives in the occupied Palestinian territories,” said Hadas Ziv, director of ethics and content at Physicians for Human Rights Israel.

“It cannot expect a weakened and impoverished PA to handle with its limited resources a public health crisis that challenges even developed countries. It is both a legal and a moral obligation.”

Amnesty International called the denial of vaccines to Palestinians “institutionalised discrimination”, saying the unfair distribution of vaccines could “hardly be a better illustration of how Israeli lives are valued above Palestinian ones”.

“It goes deeper than this,” Amnesty’s Middle East and north Africa deputy director, Saleh Higazi, told The Independent.

“This the structural denial of rights for the Palestinians. We want that structure to be dismantled,” he added.

Palestinian health officials told The Independent that the PA had verbally asked Israel to sell it 10,000 doses of vaccines to cover its frontline workers as it scrambled to get enough doses for the entire population.

The WHO-led Covax global initiative, to ensure eventual Covid-19 vaccines reach those in greatest need, will provide 2 million doses of vaccines free of charge to the PA to cover 20 percent of the Palestinian population.

Two PA health officials told The Independent they have confirmed the purchase of an additional 2 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, but the initial delivery of the first batch of any of these vaccines is not expected before the end of February, possibly even the beginning of March.

The officials said the PA needs an additional 2 million doses on top of this to ensure sufficient immunity, and added that they are still in negotiations with multiple companies.

“It is important to have coordination between Israel and Palestine. There are no proper borders, people move between the two, it is problematic,” said Ali Abed Rabbo, director-general of the Palestinian health ministry.

“The principle of vaccination and herd immunity is needed to stop this pandemic that requires all parts of the world to work together.”

[pugsville]

Ummm.. the Palestinian Authority should be responsible for getting the Vaccine (and innoculating its population), not Israel ? In addition, Israel has ZERO responsibility to the Gaza Strip; that is not under its control.

Of course, Israel COULD come to an agreement with the PA to help in the West Bank, but ... the PA cancelled and forswore ALL agreements and co-operation with Israel back in May ?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/20/palestinian-leader-mahmoud-abbas-ends-security-agreement-with-israel-and-us

Before everyone starts criticising Israel, it is also worth pointing out that the PA has not formally REQUESTED help from Israel regarding vaccinations ?

Mind you, the Geneva Convention muddies the waters here somewhat. Is the West Bank under PA control, or is it still "occupied territories" ?

Has Israel withdrawn? Stoop interfering in West Bank Borders? Recognized the undisputed and full soverieinty of the Palestinian Authority?