Top Palestinian official Saeb Erekat dies at 65, Fatah says

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat has died, the Palestinian party Fatah say, following complications related to Covid-19.

Erekat was 65. He had Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and a lung transplant in the US in 2017, before contracting the coronavirus last month.

As his condition deteriorated, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) secretary-general was transferred from his West Bank home town of Jericho to the Jerusalem hospital in mid-October.

Before his current position, Erekat served as Chief Palestinian Negotiator for nearly two decades, since shortly after the 1993 interim Oslo peace accords with Israel.