The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, was in a serious condition on Wednesday night after a sharp deterioration in his health, Palestinian officials said.
A three-man emergency committee of Palestinian leaders was rapidly appointed as an ambulance rushed doctors to his Ramallah compound, where he has been confined by Israel for more than two years.
One senior Palestinian official, who declined to be named, said that Arafat (75) was slipping in and out of consciousness.
He said the Palestinian leader was ”extremely ill” several days after aides said he was suffering only from flu and gallstones.
The Palestinian foreign minister, Nabil Shaath, said Arafat was being fed intravenously.
Another Palestinian leader, Mustafa Barghouti, who visited Arafat on Wednesday night, said: ”The president is seriously sick. He has been unable to eat and he was vomiting. He has severe gastro-intestinal problems. There is a team of doctors with him and two other teams are on their way. He is a 75-year-old man, so it’s serious.”
Dr Barghouti said he believed Arafat would recover and that there were no plans to move him to hospital. But the drama was sufficiently serious to require Arafat’s wife, Suha, to fly to Ramallah from Paris, where she lives.
His personal doctor for the past 20 years, Ashraf Kurdi, a Jordanian neurologist, was also en route for Ramallah, from Jordan.
”Arafat’s aides called me urgently. I am taking a team to assess his condition and do whatever is possible that can be done. They refused to tell me what his condition was,” said Dr Kurdi.
Israeli officials told Haaretz newspaper on Wednesday night that Arafat would be permitted to travel anywhere he chooses for treatment, after more than two years as a prisoner in his Ramallah compound, the muqata. But the Palestinian leader has previously said he will not leave the occupied territories without a guarantee he will be allowed to return.
Arafat appointed three officials — the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, his predecessor, Mahmoud Abbas, and Salim Zanoun, a senior Palestinian Liberation Organisation official — to run affairs during his incapacitation.
Rawhi Fatuh, the speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, would become temporary head of the Palestinian Authority if Arafat were to die.
Arafat has suffered from ill health for years and his latest affliction became apparent 10 days ago when he was unable to complete the first day of Ramadan prayers. Doctors from Egypt and Tunisia have visited, and he underwent an endoscopy to check his stomach earlier this week, fuelling speculation that he has intestinal cancer.
Shaath said the doctors had ruled that out.
Palestinians continue to blame his ailment on a stubborn bout of flu.
Shut away in his Ramallah redoubt and sidelined by Israel from the moribund Middle East peace process, Arafat continues to wield considerable authority in the Palestinian sphere and many have grave doubts about the post-Arafat era.
Some have predicted a bloody battle for ascendancy between the various factions once Arafat has relinquished his three-decade hold over the Palestinian movement. – Guardian Unlimited Â