Ariel Sharon passes away aged 85
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has died aged 85 after spending eight years in a coma following a stroke.
He was a giant of Israel's military and political scene, but courted controversy throughout his long career.
The head of the Sheba Medical Centre near Tel Aviv said Mr Sharon had died on Saturday afternoon of heart failure.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he was a great warrior but a senior Palestinian said his path was war and aggression.
"His memory will live forever in the nation's heart", the Israeli leader's spokesman said on Twitter.
But leading Palestinian political figure Mustafa Barghouti said while no-one should gloat at his death, Mr Sharon had taken "a path of war and aggression" and had left "no good memories with Palestinians".
The BBC's Kevin Connolly, in Jerusalem, says Ariel Sharon's life was intimately entwined with the life of the country he loved.
He fought in Israel's war of independence in 1948, and from that point until he slipped into a coma in 2006 it seemed there was hardly a moment of national drama in which he did not play a role, our correspondent says.
The 85-year-old became PM in 2001 and in 2005 completed a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, barely a year before he suffered a massive stroke.
His health had declined for the past week and a half, Sheba Medical Centre Director Professor Shlomo Noy told reporters.
"Over the past week he struggled with surprising strength and determination against the deterioration in his condition. Today he departed peacefully with his loving family at his side."
One of his two sons, Gilad Sharon, said outside the hospital: "He has gone. He went when he decided to go."
He had been in a persistent vegetative state since a stroke in 2006 and Professor Noy said he had suffered "ups and downs" throughout that period.
Ariel Sharon died during the Jewish Sabbath and the BBC's Yolande Knell said a ministerial committee would meet in the coming hours to decide what steps to take in the coming hours.
It is believed Mr Sharon's body may lie in state at Israel's parliament, the Knesset, before a big state funeral is held. He will finally be buried at his ranch in the Negev desert, our correspondent says.
As prime minister, Mr Sharon presided over some of the most turbulent times in Israeli-Palestinian history, a Palestinian uprising that erupted in 2000 and a subsequent tough Israeli military response.
To many Israelis, he was a heroic warrior, having led decisive campaigns in the 1967 and 1973 wars.
But Palestinians remember him for Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, during which a massacre of civilians was carried out by Christian Phalangist militia in Beirut's Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Ariel Sharon was found personally responsible by an Israeli inquiry for allowing the massacre to happen.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron said Israel had lost "one of the most significant figures" in its history while French President Francois Hollande said after a long military and military career Mr Sharon had "taken the choice to turn to dialogue with the Palestinians".
Ex-US President Bill Clinton said he "gave his life to Israel" and it was an honour to "work with him, argue with him and watch him always trying to find the right path for his beloved country".
Known as Arik, Mr Sharon entered politics after the 1973 war but he became defence minister in 1981 and took charge of the invasion of Lebanon the following year, in an attempt to remove Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) fighters who had carried out attacks across Israel's northern border.
After the Kahan commission into the Beirut massacres recommended he be removed from office, Mr Sharon was forced to resign as defence minister but stayed in government. But it was not until 2001 that he came to power as prime minister.
Danny Ayalon, a former Israeli ambassador to the US under Ariel Sharon, said the late prime minister's decision to pull out of Gaza in 2005 had changed the political landscape and he was prepared to take creative steps towards a solution with the Palestinians.
But Hamas, Gaza's Islamist rulers since 2007, condemned him as a tyrant and said his death marked the "disappearance of a criminal whose hands were covered with Palestinian blood".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25696601 |
