Fathi Arafat, one of ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s brothers, is being treated in a Cairo hospital for terminal cancer, Palestinian sources said on Tuesday.
”Fathi Arafat, who is terminally ill with cancer, was brought two days ago to the Egyptian [military] hospital of Wadi al-Nil, following contacts with the Palestinian Authority,” one source said on condition of anonymity.
The 67-year-old, whose cancer was diagnosed several years ago, is a trained doctor and was one of the founders of the Palestinian Red Crescent in 1968.
He graduated from Cairo University in 1957 and spent several years working in Egypt, Kuwait and Jordan, before returning to the Palestinian territories after the 1994 launch of autonomy to join his brother’s administration.
Yasser Arafat (75) was rushed to a military hospital in a Paris suburb last Friday.
The veteran leader is known to be suffering from a deficiency of blood platelets — which are needed for clotting — but doctors are uncertain over what is causing the condition.
Palestinian officials said on Tuesday that doctors have ruled out cancer and leukaemia as well as poisoning. First test results are not expected until Friday, according to his economic adviser, Mohamed Rashid. — Sapa-AFP