Israel is said to have financed the delivery of doses of Russian vaccine Sputnik V to the Syrian regime, in exchange for the release of a citizen detained by Damascus. This embarrassing arrangement had been kept secret by the Israeli military censorship bureau since last week. On Saturday February 20, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu alluded to it, insisting that the country had not drawn on its own stocks of vaccines to repatriate the young woman: “Not a single dose of Israeli vaccine was used for this. We brought the young lady back, I’m grateful to the president [russe Vladimir] Putin. I will not say anything more on this subject at the request of Russia. “
Estimates in the Israeli press varied on Monday on the amount paid – from one to several million euros, the equivalent of more than 100,000 doses according to the tariffs put forward by Moscow in November 2020. For Israeli analyst Elizabeth Tsurkov, the question was whether these doses would protect the Alawite heart of power, or whether they could be distributed more widely to the population. Last in the race for vaccination in the Middle East, Syria hopes to receive vaccines from the Covax program of the World Health Organization (WHO) in April, in government areas. In addition, if China has promised some 150,000 doses, the Russian ally had so far committed nothing, arousing strong resentment in pro-Assad circles.
Israel’s gesture is all the more surprising given that the world leader in vaccination has only transferred a few thousand doses to the Palestinian Authority, even though the two territories are too intimately involved for the epidemic to circulate between them. On Friday, the Palestinian Authority said the Israeli health ministry had agreed to vaccinate some 100,000 West Bank Palestinians who are employed in Israel.
Unstable young woman
The young woman at the heart of the exchange, repatriated early Friday, had entered Syria on February 2, in a hilly region, not fenced and devoid of cameras, near Mount Hermon. From the village of Majdal Shams, she had reached the Syrian locality of Hader, near Kuneitra, where she was quickly denounced. Passed through Moscow, she landed at Ben-Gurion airport in a private jet, escorted by the Israeli coordinator for prisoners and the chief of staff of Mr. Netanyahu.
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