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BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Since the coronavirus first emerged in the occupied West Bank, Suha Gadeon has meticulously donned her mask, avoided mingling with friends, and refused to host family members or attend public gatherings.

However, Ms Gadeon, 41, membership director of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce, refused to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, worrying about side effects such as blood clots, heart complications and hair loss. While some harmful side effects have been found, these are extremely rare and health experts say the benefits of getting vaccinated far outweigh the risks.

“I am now strongly against getting vaccinated,” he said. “Only after three to five years of studies have proven that it’s safe to take, I can be comfortable.”

For months, Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip struggled to vaccinate residents suffering from vaccine shortages.

Now they’ve had millions of doses, but they’re facing a new challenge: convincing the majority of the public to get the injections.

“We have vaccines, but we urgently need people to be vaccinated,” said Shadi al-Liham, the top Health Ministry official in the Bethlehem region. “They are critical to helping us recover from the pandemic.”

The number of new virus cases in the West Bank and Gaza increased significantly last week, reaching 868 in the West Bank on Thursday and 1,021 in Gaza on Friday, the highest single-day figures for months. The number of hospitalizations in both regions has roughly tripled in the past two weeks.

But only 37 percent of eligible West Bank residents According to health officials in the two regions, at least one dose has received the vaccine, and about 18 percent in Gaza.

According to Abdulsalam al-Khayyat, director of the public health department at An Najah University’s medical school in Nablus, disinformation and conspiracy theories, along with more well-founded concerns about reduced efficacy of the vaccine, have contributed to widespread hesitancy to get vaccinated. West Bank.

“A lot of people don’t get reliable information about vaccines,” he said.

Bethlehem may have suffered the hardest, with the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in a Palestinian city in the West Bank. In addition to killing at least 258 people in the region, the virus has also taken the tourism industry by storm in the city where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born. Hotels and restaurants have closed and tour guides are out of work.

But at the bustling open-air market in the Old Town, many fruit and vegetable vendors spoke out loud about vaccine skepticism, almost as they did when selling their produce.

“I read that people will die two years after receiving the vaccine,” said 53-year-old Issa Abu Huleil, while selling watermelon to a customer, citing a false rumor. “That’s why I decided not to get the vaccine. Why would I risk it? My health is excellent.”

Last week, the Palestinian Authority and the Islamist militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, ordered government workers to be vaccinated to increase compliance.

In announcing the decision, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said refusing to be vaccinated was “not a matter of personal freedom”. “Your freedom ends when it harms the health of others.”

Public sector workers who are not vaccinated will be put on unpaid leave until the end of the pandemic, the official said. The government is the West Bank’s largest employer, and Palestinian officials said the number of vaccines had increased significantly in recent days after the government decision went into effect.

Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, said that all government workers in Gaza should be vaccinated or subject to legal measures. Mr al-Qidra said anyone whose work in the private sector puts them in direct contact with the public should also get vaccinated if they want to stay in their jobs.

Human rights activists have voiced reservations about the strictness of the measures, arguing that authorities could instead introduce incentives, such as extra holidays to get vaccinated, or allow workers who refuse vaccinations to continue working, provided they are regularly tested.

“There needs to be a balance between public health and personal freedoms,” said Ammar Dwaik, director of the Independent Human Rights Commission set up by the Palestinian government. However, I think the authorities can consider the alternatives here more,” he said.

Vaccine hesitancy is the final hurdle in Palestinians’ intricate fight against the epidemic. For most of this year, Palestinians had very few vaccines, which means Strong criticism of Israel for not protecting Palestinians Israel is under occupation while running a world-leading vaccination program for its citizens.

But most of the doses the Palestinian Authority has siphoned to the upper echelons of the ruling party, to their allies in the media, and even to family members of top statesmen. last spring, Israel Vaccinated over 100,000 Palestinians Not the millions of Palestinians working in Israel but in the West Bank and Gaza.

And when Israel finally offered the authority over a million doses in a vaccine exchange agreement in June, authority turned them down.

Since Palestinians began receiving international shipments in February, they have received more than 2.8 million doses, enough to fully vaccinate most of the currently eligible population, according to the World Health Organization. The organization said authorities in the West Bank and Gaza are in the process of obtaining or negotiating deals for an additional 4.6 million doses.

Palestinian health officials said more than 1.2 million doses have already been given. An American donation of 500,000 doses came in this week, with orders for four million Pfizer doses in batches.

Richard Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative in the West Bank and Gaza, said authorities still need more vaccines to vaccinate the overwhelming majority of the population.

“There is still a long way to go,” he said.

At a vaccination center in Bethlehem on Thursday, the impact of the Palestinian Authority’s decision to require its employees to be vaccinated was clear.

Dozens gathered near a table where nurses were making various vaccinations, while others filled out paperwork outside.

But a few people who received the vaccine said they only got vaccinated because they had to.

“I’ve never been convinced about the vaccine,” said Mohammed Quwar, 34, an aspiring taxi driver. But he said the Ministry of Transport would allow him to take the driver’s license exam if he showed proof of vaccination.

“I don’t see any benefit from the vaccine, but I want to be a taxi driver,” he said. “So, I really have no choice.”

Iyad Abuheweila He contributed to the news from Gaza.