Reuters
Ramallah
On Tuesday, a Palestinian official revealed an agreement with Israel to deliver the biometric passport system equipment that Tel Aviv has held since 2018.
The Undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of the Interior, Yousef Harb, told the official Palestinian News Agency (WAFA): We have reached a final agreement with the Israeli authorities to release the equipment of the biometric passport that has been kept with them since 2018.
Harb stated that the equipment will arrive in the Palestinian territories within days after the Palestinian official authorities made a great effort to release her, pointing out that the ministry is awaiting its arrival in order to start preparing for the issuance of the biometric passport.
He stated that the ministry needs a period of 6 months after the arrival of the equipment in order to start issuing the passport, because it needs to install the equipment in all directorates, while the issuance of the passport is at the ministry’s headquarters in Ramallah.
Harb pointed out that the passport is based on a fingerprint and includes a black magnetic tape that shows detailed information about its holder as soon as the passport is passed onto a computer at airports, and he is required to apply it by international civil aviation.
He considered that the step “will represent an achievement for Palestine to be as advanced as all other countries in using these documents.”
Source: Wafa
