Coronavirus: PLO Erekat's son says health critical but stable, denies death reports

Palestinian state television has denied news reports of the death of Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Speaking to family members at the Hadassah Medical Center in Israel, Erekat's health condition is currently critical.

Hours earlier, Asharq television channel tweeted a breaking news alert of Erekat dying but had later deleted the tweet from their verified account on Twitter.

Ali Erekat, the son of the Palestinian leader Saeb Erekat, confirmed to Al Arabiya that his father is still undergoing treatment at Hadassah Hospital and that his health condition is critical but stable. He expressed anger at “repeated rumors that spoke about his [Saeb Erekat’s] health condition.”

Erekat, who was the Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), was hospitalized in Israel with COVID-19 and placed on a ventilator on Monday after his condition deteriorated, a spokeswoman for the facility said.

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Erekat was rushed to Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center on Sunday from his home in the occupied West Bank. He contracted the coronavirus on October 8.

Erekat underwent lung-transplant surgery in the United States in 2017.

The 65-year-old has been a key figure in Palestinian politics for decades, often serving as a main interlocutor for foreign envoys and the international media.

He has consistently voiced support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Read more:

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(With inputs from AFP and Reuters)