RAMALLAH/GAZA, Nov 11 (NNN-WAFA) – Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee and chief Palestinian negotiator, died yesterday at 65, after contracting COVID-19.
Erekat died while receiving treatment at the Israeli Hadassah Hospital, where he had been treated for about three weeks, after suffering health complications due to his infection with COVID-19, Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Movement said, in a press statement.
The senior Palestinian official contracted the virus last month. As his condition deteriorated, he was transferred from his West Bank home town of Jericho, to the Israeli hospital in mid-Oct.
Erekat, born in East Jerusalem in 1955, had been the chief Palestinian negotiator since 1996, and previously participated in the Oslo peace agreement, signed by the PLO and Israel, at the White House in 1993.
President Abbas mourned Erekat and ordered flags to be flown at half-mast for three days.
“Erekat spent his life as a fighter, and a formidable peace negotiator, defending Palestine, its cause, its people, and its independent national decision,” Abbas was quoted as saying.
He added that Erekat’s departure “represents a great loss for Palestine and our people, and we are deeply saddened by this loss, especially in light of these difficult circumstances facing the Palestinian cause.”
Hanan Ashrawi, PLO Executive Committee member, mourned Erekat and described him as “a national leader and an icon of the Palestinian political and struggle movement.”
“Erekat worked tirelessly to achieve peace and obtain freedom and dignity for the Palestinians. He contributed to the consolidation of justice for the Palestinian cause,” Ashrawi said.
Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammed Ishtaye, said in a press statement that “Erekat spent his life as a fighter and a solid negotiator defending Palestine, its cause, its people, and its independent national decision.”
In Gaza, the Islamic Hamas movement said, it offers its condolences and sympathy to the Palestinian people and the Fatah Movement on his death.
According to an official statement, Hamas politburo chief, Ismail Haniyeh, sent the movement’s condolences in a telephone conversation with President Abbas.– NNN-WAFA
