a "significant stroke" late Wednesday, January 4, and his authority was transferred to Vice Premier Ehud Olmert, officials said.
Jerusalem’s Hadassah-Ein Kerem Hospital said Sharon, 77, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was receiving breathing assistance while under general anesthetic. He arrived there after being rushed from his ranch in the Negev desert, an official said.
Channel 2 Television said Sharon was suffering from paralysis in his lower body and was taken into the hospital on a stretcher.
Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the hospital’s director general, told reporters that Sharon was under general anesthetic and was receiving breathing assistance while doctors assessed his condition. Addressing reporters in English, Mor-Yosef said Sharon had "massive bleeding and was being transferred to an operating theater."
POWER TRANSFERRED
The Prime Minister’s Office said his authority would be transferred to Vice Premier Ehud Olmert. "Acting Prime Minister Olmert…is receiving regular updates regarding Prime Minister Sharon’s condition," the office said in a statement monitored by BosNewsLife.
Sharon’s office said his personal physician was with him in the hospital where he arrived after feeling unwell. "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this evening (Wednesday) went to Hadassah-Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem after feeling ill," the statement added. He was taken by ambulance, a drive of more than an hour from his ranch in the Negev Desert in Israel’s south, instead of by helicopter, news reports said.
The latest health crisis came hours before Sharon was to undergo a procedure to seal a hole in his heart that contributed to a mild stroke on December 18. The dramatic downturn in Sharon’s health comes as he runs for re-election on March 28 leading a new centrist party, Kadima. Sharon has a wide lead in the polls.
HEART PROCEDURE
Sharon had been scheduled to undergo a heart procedure to repair a small hole on Thursday, January 4, at the hospital.
He was installed as Israel’s 11th prime minister in March 2001 and is considered by his supporters as a hero of both the Six Day and Yom Kippur wars and as someone who never shied from controversy.
It was his decision that led to the Israeli withdrawal form the Gaza Strip and commentators claim it was his visit to the Temple Mount in 2000 that sparked the second Palestinian uprising or ‘intifada’.
GAZA VIOLENCE
Sharon’s second hospitalization in three weeks came as his government was dealing with an outbreak of deadly border violence in the Gaza Strip in which several Egyptian soldiers were killed.
The problems began when hundreds of angry Palestinians streamed into Egypt on Wednesday, January 4, in an attempt to reunite with relatives, after militants with stolen bulldozers broke through a border wall.
Two Egyptian troops were killed and 30 were wounded by gunfire in the rampage, reported The Associated Press (AP), quoting officials.
MINISTRY TROOPS
About 3,000 Egyptian Interior Ministry troops who initially had no orders to fire swarmed the border but were forced to withdraw about 800 meters, said security forces Lieut. Sameh el-Antablyan, who announced the casualties.
The gunmen, who belong to the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a violent offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party, rammed through the massive wall as a show of force against the Palestinian Authority, reporters said.
The militants’ rampage through the southern Gaza town of Rafah underscored the growing lawlessness in Palestinian towns, especially in Gaza. Abbas, who has condemned the chaos, has been unable to impose order, and his failure to keep the gunmen in check is expected to harm Fatah’s prospects in January 25 parliamentary elections, AP said. (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos and reports from Israel and Palestinian territories).
