Israel buys vaccines for Syria to secure a prisoner’s release

JERUSALEM/SYDNEY: Israel paid has Russia $1.2 million to provide the Syrian government with coronavirus vaccine doses as part of a deal that secured the release of an Israeli woman held captive in Damascus, according to Israeli media reports.

The terms of the clandestine trade-off orchestrated by Moscow between the two enemy nations remained murky. But the fact that Israel is providing vaccines to Syria - an enemy country hosting hostile Iranian forces - has drawn criticism at home. It has also drawn attention to Israel’s refusal to provide significant quantities to millions of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “not one Israeli vaccine” was involved in the deal. But he did not address the issue of whether Israel paid for Russian vaccines, and he said Russia insisted on keeping details of the swap secret.

Israel announced on Friday it had reached a Russian-mediated deal to bring home a young woman who had crossed the border into neighbouring Syria earlier this month. In exchange,

Israel said it had released two Syrian shepherds who had entered the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

As part of the prisoner swap mediated by Moscow, Israel paid Russia to supply Syria with an undisclosed number of doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, according to reports.

The woman returned to Israel via Moscow and was questioned by Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency. The 25-year-old woman hails from the town of Modiin Ilit and had previously attempted to cross Israel’s borders with the Gaza Strip and Jordan, according to Israeli media. She reportedly crossed into Syrian territory from the Golan Heights. Her identity and motivation for crossing into Syria were not released.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout began on Sunday, with top government officials among a small group receiving the first jabs a day before the vaccination programme starts in earnest.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was injected with the Pfizer vaccine at a medical centre in Sydney’s northwest, in what the government said was an effort to boost public confidence in the vaccinations.