A plane carrying 700,000 Pfizer coronavirus vaccines took off from Israel for South Korea Tuesday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced.

Israel on Monday night signed a deal with South Korea to provide the hundreds of thousands of doses before they expired later this month.

As part of the deal, Israel will receive in the fourth quarter of the year an identical number of Pfizer vaccine doses ordered by Seoul. The deal was made with Pfizer's approval, sources told Haaretz.

Last month, Israel signed a similar agreement with the Palestinian Authority, which would have seen the transfer of 1.2 million vaccine doses to the PA.

Hours later, however, the PA announced the cancellation of the agreement to receive Pfizer vaccine doses from Israel, claiming that the doses have expired or are about to expire.

The deal with South Korea involves a smaller number of doses because Israel wants to ensure that it has enough doses for those aged 12-15 who receive the first dose of the vaccine by July 9, according to Haaretz. A second dose is set aside for all Israelis who receive their first dose by that date.

In recent months, Israel has held talks with several countries, including the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic, in an attempt to create a deal to offload its large surplus of expiring vaccines, the report said.