The PLO Negotiations Affairs Department announced today that the Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee, Saeb Erekat, was moved to a hospital in Israel.

The department said Erekat, who last week tested positive for coronavirus, was moved to a hospital in Israel due to chronic respiratory health issues he had been suffering, which requires special medical care.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat transferred to Israeli hospital for COVID treatment | Live updateshttps://t.co/W9kLoLlXHT

— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) October 18, 2020

Minister of Health Mai Alkaila confirmed today that six people died of coronavirus, 389 new cases were recorded and 336 patients recovered across Palestine during the last 24 hours.

She pointed out that five of the deaths were in the West Bank, while the sixth was in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians in occupied #Jerusalem perform dawn prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound after an ease in coronavirus restrictions imposed by the #Israeli occupation authorities for nearly a month, today. pic.twitter.com/VUuDIe79sp

— The Inside Palestine (@TheInsidePal) October 18, 2020

Alkaila said 47 of the new infections in the West Bank were in Hebron district, 53 in Nablus district, 16 in Bethlehem district, 36 in Tulkarm, 16 in Qalqilya, 31 in Jenin, 29 in Ramallah, 22 in Jericho, 7 in Salfit, 6 in Tubas, and 7 others in the West Bank side of the Jerusalem district. Meanwhile, 119 new cases were registered in the Gaza Strip.

Alkaila said 40 coronavirus patients remain in intensive care, six of them are on respirators.

No details of the number of cases in occupied East Jerusalem were available.

(Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)