JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel is to put on hold its program to send COVID-19 vaccines abroad amid legal scrutiny, Israeli news media reports said on Thursday following criticism at home and abroad of what has been called ‘vaccine diplomacy’.
Israeli public broadcaster Kan, which this week reported that Israel would send small shipments to 19 countries, said the country’s attorney general was seeking clarification about the program.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came under fire for donating COVID-19 vaccines to foreign allies while Palestinians complained that, as an occupying power, it should be supplying more to them.
His office made no immediate comment after the reports that the initiative was on hold. Netanyahu earlier this week defended the program as buying international “goodwill”.
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and Stephen Farrell)
