As Israel and Hamas inch closer to a possible prisoner exchange deal, the IDF has taken over two dozen coronavirus test kits to be tested in it’s laboratory in central Israel.
“The State of Israel is helping the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip deal with the spread of the coronavirus,” the IDF said in a statement. “Assistance is provided through international bodies, the Health Ministry and the IDF. The division of these roles is done according to the political echelon.”
As part of that effort, 50 tests were transferred from the Gaza Strip on a one-time basis to the military’s laboratory in Tzrifin which is also conducting tests for soldiers suspected of having the deadly virus.
While Hamas had initially refused Israeli help in dealing with the pandemic, refusing conditions that Israel had set on April 2 Hamas leader Yayha Sinwar said the terror group was “ready to make partial concessions on our prisoners’ issue in exchange for the release of elderly prisoners, patients, and prisoners as a humanitarian gesture in light of the coronavirus crisis.”
Less than a week later Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for an “immediate dialogue between mediators” to facilitate a deal and that the Coordinator for Captives and Missing Persons Yaron Blum and his team are “committed to acting constructively with the aim of bringing back the soldiers’ bodies and missing civilians and putting an end to the issue."
While there are currently 13 confirmed cases of the virus in Gaza, Hamas officials have warned of a “catastrophe” if the virus spreads among the two million Palestinians living there and called for international pressure on Israel to ease restrictions and facilitate the delivery of testing gear and other medical equipment.
Last week health officials in the blockaded coastal enclave said that they had run out of testing kits and warned that the lack of medical supplies would lead to the virus spreading in the densely populated Strip.
There are 20 coronavirus quarantine facilities in Gaza's south, including empty schools, hotels and medical facilities which are currently housing people who have just returned to the blockaded coastal enclave.
On Sunday the IDF’s Unit for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and the international community allowed the transfer of a PCR machine into the Gaza Strip through the Erez Crossing which is a key part in the detection of the virus.
The machine, which tests samples to determine if they contain the virus, was transferred to Shifa Hospital and will serve to double the rate of tests carried out in the Strip. Along with the PCR machine, 500 detection kits and reagents that were purchased by the World Health Organization (WHO) were also transferred into the enclave.
The head of the Civil Department at COGAT, Colonel Sharon Biton, said that the transfer of the equipment was “all done with an eye on the overall situation, with a sense of mission, and with an understanding of the danger threatened by a coronavirus outbreak in the Gaza Strip.”
The WHO has warned that Gaza’s healthcare system would not be able to deal with an outbreak of the deadly disease in the densely populated enclave home to nearly 2 million people.