Gilad Erdan
Gilad ErdanMoshe Biton

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, on Sunday criticized the Palestinian Authority's request that senior PA official Saeb Erekat be hospitalized in Israel, after his condition deteriorated as a result of being infected with the coronavirus.

"Palestinian hypocrisy is at its peak," Erdan said. "Saeb Erekat, a senior Fatah figure who contracted coronavirus, was hospitalized today at Hadassah to receive medical treatment. Do you understand? The same Erekat who, along with his organization, supports the boycott of Israel and the BDS movement and only recently spread a blood libel as if Israel is deliberately infecting Palestinians with coronavirus, seeks, when it comes to his health, to use the medical capabilities of our country."

"All the lies and Palestinian hypocrisy are embodied in this incident and how prominent it is in the face of the sanctity of life and the values ​​of Israel," Ambassador Erdan added.

Erekat was hospitalized earlier on Sunday in the intensive care unit for coronavirus carriers at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.

Hospital officials said that the 65-year-old PLO chief negotiator is in serious but stable condition.

Erekat is in a high-risk group after having previously contracted pulmonary fibrosis and having undergone a lung transplant in the United States in 2017.

MK Bezalel Smotrich of the Yamina party responded to the treatment of Erekat, "The fact that we provide humanitarian medical care to our enemies without demanding and receiving humanitarian reciprocity in the form of returning the bodies of Hadar [Goldin] and Oron [Shaul] and releasing the civilians held captive by Hamas is neither moral nor logical. And in this matter, there is no difference between Gaza and Ramallah. "