‘Israel’ purchased Russian COVID vaccines for Bashar’s regime in Syria secret prisoner swap

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- The occupation state agreed to buy hundreds of thousands of doses of Russian-made coronavirus vaccine for Syria as part of a prisoner swap deal, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported on Sunday.

The vaccine purchase was stipulated in a secret clause in a Russian-brokered deal to return an Israeli woman who crossed the border into Syria, reported Haaretz.

Barak Ravid, an Israeli reporter, wrote on Twitter that the country had paid Russia $1.2m (£850,000) for its Sputnik V vaccine as part of the deal, citing “foreign sources”.

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency denied the report of the vaccine clause, saying it was a lie meant to improve the occupation state’s image.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said only that Israel didn’t give the Syrians any vaccine from its own inventory, Ynet said.

Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Friday that a young Israeli woman who crossed the border into Syria was heading back to the occupied land.

Israeli media had initially referred to another unspecified but apparently significant clause in the deal, adding that the Israeli military censor had blocked publication.

Amos Harel, a military correspondent for Haaretz newspaper, wrote that Netanyahu would have preferred to have kept the deal secret, as the “Israeli right is not enthused by Israel spending its money to purchase vaccines for citizens of Arab countries”.

The occupation state has secured more than enough vaccine shots for its nine million settlers.

A report by Bloomberg said that the occupation state has been stocking up COVID vaccines while depriving nearly five million native Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and occupied Jerusalem of it.

Recently, the Israeli Ministry of Health excluded native Palestinian workers from a mass campaign to vaccinate foreign workers in the occupation state.