After the exchange of words in April between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), following accusations of senior PA officials that Israel is purposely spreading the coronavirus among Palestinians, things seem to have calmed a bit, and the new arrangement to allow Palestinian workers into Israel attests to this. The arrangement is meant to rescue the Israeli construction industry from a harsh blow because of the shortage of workers, and to provide economic relief to tens of thousands of Palestinian families.
The start of the coronavirus outbreak actually saw close cooperation between Israel and the PA. Palestinian medical personnel entered Israel from the West Bank and from the Gaza Strip, with Hamas’ permission, in order to receive training to treat the virus that causes COVID-19 at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon and Shiba Hospital in Tel Hashomer, which are now specialized medical centers.
Israel transferred a great amount of medical equipment to the PA, most of it aid that arrived from abroad, and shared supplies from Israeli emergency stockpiles in order to help the Palestinians prevent a wide outbreak of the pandemic. Such an outbreak could have been a real humanitarian disaster because of the small number of ventilators in hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza — about 250 in the West Bank and 90 in Gaza — and the crowded conditions in refugee camps.
The contact between the Israeli Ministry of Health and Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila, a doctor by profession, grew closer, and any equipment or help she requested soon arrived. But after it became clear that some of the Palestinian patients caught the virus in Israel, while working, some senior PA officials made provocative statements, and the PA mouthpieces, such as the daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, published columns and caricatures in this vein. One showed an Israeli soldier shooting corona bullets at a Palestinian village. Abdallah Kamil, governor of Salfit region, accused ultra-Orthodox Jews of spreading the coronavirus purposely among Palestinian workers, and even Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh claimed that soldiers are spreading the virus intentionally among Palestinians by spitting at cars at checkpoints.
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