SHAFAQNA- Israel’s Public Security Minister Amir Ohana has ordered prison officials not to vaccinate Palestinian inmates against COVID-19, according to an Israeli newspaper. A statement from Ohana’s office said he’d ordered the Israel Prisons Service to only vaccinate prison staff at this stage and that security prisoners shouldn’t be given vaccines without permission, Times of Israel reported. The prisoners will be vaccinated “in accordance with the progress of vaccinating the general public”, the statement added.
According to Wafa, 140 security prisoners have been infected with coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. Israel kicked off its national vaccination campaign on Sunday, with hospital workers, those over 60 and at-risk groups being the first to receive the vaccines, Islam Times reported.
Criticising Ohana’s announcement, Physicians for Human Rights said: “Minister Ohana’s politically motivated directive indicates once again why the responsibility for prisoner health should be moved from the Public Security Ministry and the Israel Prisons Service to a body whose first priority is health, according to Middle East Eye.