As COVID-19 testing finally increased in Palestine over the last month so did the number of positive cases and deaths.

After two and a half years of living abroad, Abdelrahman Abuabed decided it was time to visit his family. He arrived in Gaza days before the May escalation between Hamas and Israel. “A terror-stricken burden of waiting for the next massacre looms over every house in Gaza and an insane feeling of wishing it will be far away from you and from anyone you know.”

Anti-vaccination and anti-masking advocates are circulating misleading and false claims about inoculation and infection rates in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.

After months of a stalled rollout, the vaccination rate in the West Bank and Gaza has increased to nearly a quarter of the eligible population, following new inoculation sites.

Israelis over 60 will receive a third coronavirus vaccine, or booster shot, after new cases skyrocketed from an outbreak of the more contagious Delta variant. It’s unclear whether or not Palestinians will adopt these measures, as of now most of the Palestinian population is not fully vaccinated. In fact, according to the ministry of health, only 412,136 have received both jabs. 

As “more and more cases of the infectious Delta variant” are confirmed, the World Health Organization said Thursday it “fears that the fourth wave of COVID-19 is around the corner” for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, reversing the first major decrease in new cases that had occurred over the spring.

Palestinians in Gaza who tested positive for COVID-19 during the recent escalation with Israel struggled to care for their health and their families, amid both airstrikes and overwhelmed hospitals.

While we are continuing to see the overall number of new coronavirus cases decline in the West Bank, the highly contagious delta variant is spreading throughout the Palestinian territory, causing health officials to pull the alarm and enact a four-day closure over the entire city of Jenin.

The delta variant has reached the West Bank. While previous mutations of the coronavirus have caused waves of concern, none have been this contagious or dangerous in terms of delaying national reopening plans.

Of Palestinians who tested positive in the last week, 84% were in Gaza and 16% in the West Bank.