Yasser Arafat’s medics flatly denied on Tuesday that the 75-year-old Palestinian leader needs hospital treatment after Israel gave clearance for him to be treated outside his West Bank headquarters.
Israel’s Defence Ministry said late on Monday that Arafat, who has been under virtual house arrest for nearly three years, will be allowed to leave his headquarters to be examined in a Ramallah hospital.
But one of Arafat’s medics said the veteran leader will not require any hospital treatment, insisting that he is merely suffering from a bout of flu that has been compounded by his decision to continue fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
”President Arafat is only suffering from very strong flu and because he is insisting on continuing with his fast, it is taking a longer time to recover,” the doctor said on condition of anonymity.
”There is no need for him to go to hospital. These are just Israeli rumours,” he added.
Other Palestinian sources said that reports about his ill health have been exaggerated, adding that he has been continuing to work as usual and is not confined to his bed.
Arafat has been dismissed as an obstacle to peace by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has made various threats to kill him.
But Israel is also intensely wary of the backlash to Arafat’s death, whatever the circumstances.
Arafat has a team of three doctors on call at his headquarters, known as the Muqataa, but speculation about his health grew over the weekend when a team of Tunisian medics was flown in to carry out tests.
Sources close to the Palestinian leader said he underwent a gastroscopy — an examination of the gullet and stomach — at his headquarters, which revealed nothing abnormal.
Arafat has a history of health problems. With a tendency to shake slightly, he has been rumoured to suffer from Parkinson’s disease, but his physicians have claimed the trembling is caused by ”nervous tension”.
In 1992, he underwent brain surgery in Amman to remove a blood clot that formed soon after he survived a plane crash in Libya.
Last year, Arafat suffered from flu and gallstones and was reported to be suffering from cancer, but no arrangements were made for external medical treatment.
Any hospital spell for Arafat, however brief, would be only the second time he has left the Muqataa since December 2001 — following a tour of Bethlehem and Jenin in early 2002 after a massive Israeli military operation.
Israel subsequently refused to allow Arafat to attend Christmas Mass in Bethlehem in December 2002 and 2003. The Jewish state also banned the former globetrotter from taking part in Arab summits.
The top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily reported on Tuesday that the decision to allow Arafat to leave the Muqataa was taken by Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz after talks with both army Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon and the head of the Shin Beth internal security service, Avi Dichter.
Approval was given as ”there is reason to believe that if something happens to Arafat in the meantime, Israel will be blamed for having prevented him from receiving adequate medical attention”, an official was quoted as saying. — Sapa-AFP