Senior PLO official Erekat taken to Israeli hospital for COVID treatment

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat was taken by ambulance from his home in the occupied West Bank on Sunday to a hospital in Israel for treatment of a worsening coronavirus infection, the Palestine Liberation Organization said. Erekat, 65, has been receiving medical care at home since disclosing on Oct. 8 that he had contracted the virus.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat was taken by ambulance from his home in the occupied West Bank on Sunday to a hospital in Israel for treatment of a worsening coronavirus infection, the Palestine Liberation Organization said.

Erekat, 65, has been receiving medical care at home since disclosing on Oct. 8 that he had contracted the virus. In addition to his role as chief negotiator, Erekat is secretary-general of the PLO. "Following his contraction of COVID-19, and due to the chronic health problems he faces in the respiratory system, Dr. Erekat's condition now requires medical attention in a hospital. He is currently being transferred to a hospital in Tel Aviv," the PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department said in a statement.

There is heightened concern over Erekat's vulnerability because he underwent a lung transplant in the United States in 2017. Witnesses said Erekat was on a stretcher when he was placed inside an Israeli ambulance outside his home in Jericho.

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