the ailing 75-year old Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was "clinically dead. Israeli officials have expressed concern that Palestinian factions will begin fighting over who should succeed Arafat and that attempts will be made to bury him in Jerusalem.
Before he flew to Paris to be treated for an undiagnosed ailment, the Palestinian leader had long expressed the desire to be buried at the site known to Muslims as Haram a-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
ISRAELI WORRIES
However Israeli security officials worry that a funeral procession through Jerusalem would bring huge crowds, and create a situation that would be hard, if not impossible, to control, the Voice of America (VOA) reported.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he will "never permit" Arafat to be buried in Jerusalem, which he has described as the "eternal, undivided" capital of Israel. Near Paris several dozen people gathered outside a military hospital where the Palestinian leader was being kept alive by artificial life support systems.
IMMORTAL SYMBOL
"When it is someone you love, you don’t want to believe it. But then reality sinks in. The only thing we are certain about tonight is that Yasser Arafat is the immortal symbol of the Palestinian cause," news reports quoted student Fatima Bena, 35.
Supporters of Arafat placed portraits of the Palestinian leader at the scene, unfurled candles in his honor, part of a ritual that first began when Arafat first entered Percy hospital on October 29, reporters said.
There were conflicting reports Thursday about the state of Yasser Arafat’s health. Technically, Arafat is "not dead," one source told the French News Agency AFP on condition of confidentiality.
VEGETATIVE STATE
But there was apparently no hope of him leaving his vegetative state and recovering basic bodily functions such as breathing without assistance.
Such artificial care can be "extended for several days or several weeks thanks to the machines," the source was quoted as saying. Israeli television had reported that Arafat was "clinically dead" at a military hospital in Clamart, southwest of Paris.
LUXEMBOURG CONTROVERSY
That announcement was followed a few minutes later with a news agency report quoting the prime minister of Luxembourg saying Arafat had died.
He later retracted the statement after a top medical official for the French defense forces, General Christian Estripeau, said Arafat "is not dead" but that Arafat’s clinical situation "has become more complex," VOA and other news reports said.
Meanwhile hundreds of Fatah supporters brandished portraits of Arafat as they took to the streets of Gaza City late Thursday while prayers were said for his welfare, AFP said.
PRAYERS SAID
"We pray to Almighty God for the swift recovery of our president Yasser Arafat so that he can return to his people in good health," the imam at Gaza’s Sheikh Zayid mosque was quoted as saying.
Residents in Ramallah were glued to their television sets for updates on the town’s famous resident whose dream of a Palestinian state was not expected to be fulfilled in his life time. Israel’s army was on high alert, after Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz called a meeting in Tel Aviv attended by the heads of the country’s security services.
The army has drawn up plans, codenamed "New Page", to deal with all possible eventualities should Arafat die, AFP reported. But officers would also urge the government to coordinate its withdrawal of settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip, due to take place by the end of 2005, with Arafat’s successors, Israeli television said.
