Israel’s ex-PM, Ariel Sharon, dies

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.
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.”
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.
As prime minister, Mr Sharon presided over some of the most turbulent times in Israeli-Palestinian history, a Palestinian uprising that erupted after peace talks collapsed in 2000 and a subsequent tough Israeli military response.
To many Israelis, Mr Sharon was a heroic warrior, having led decisive campaigns in the 1967 and 1973 wars.
In a tribute, current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “his memory will live forever in the nation’s heart”, his spokesman said on Twitter. He was “a great warrior and military leader”, he said.
But a leading Palestinian political figure Mustafa Barghouti said while no-one should gloat at his death, “Mr Sharon left no good memories with Palestinians”.
“Unfortunately he had a path of war and aggression and a great failure in making peace with the Palestinian people,” he told the BBC.
BBC.