RAFAH, (Palestinian Territories): Around 20,000 coronavirus vaccine doses from the UAE arrived in Gaza Sunday, a delivery reportedly orchestrated by a rival of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas three months before scheduled Palestinian elections.
The Russian-made Sputnik V doses entered Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, AFP journalists said — meaning they did not pass through Israel, which has maintained a tight blockade on Gaza since 2007. Last week, Mohammed Dahlan, a former top member of Abbas’s Fatah party now exiled in the United Arab Emirates, announced the delivery of the vaccines as a “generous grant” from Abu Dhabi.
Dahlan, currently a security adviser to UAE strongman Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, has claimed credit for the delivery, which some Palestinians are seeing as a political move ahead of May and July legislative and presidential polls.
A statement Sunday from a dissident branch of the Fatah party Dahlan controls said the vaccines were for “medical teams” in Gaza, which has not yet begun a general vaccination campaign.
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