Palestinians cancel near-expired Israeli jabs deal

The initial Israeli shipment showed an expiration date sooner than had been agreed, the PA health minister said.

The doses were due to “expire soon,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office said in a statement announcing the deal.

The PA said they had been “approved in order to speed up the vaccination process” in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

“They told us the expiration date was in July or August, which would allow lots of time for use,” PA Health Minister Mai Alkaila told reporters later on Friday.

“But (the expiration) turned out to be in June. That’s not enough time to use them, so we rejected them,” she said.

The PA cancelled the deal over the date issue, a PA spokesman said, and sent the initial shipment of about 90,000 doses back to Israel.