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Arafat 'Very Sick,' Palestinian Leaders Summoned
Wed Oct 27, 2004 08:03 PM ET

By Wafa Amr and Mohammed Assadi

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's health has worsened sharply and he is slipping in and out of consciousness at his besieged West Bank headquarters, officials and medics said Thursday.

Arafat, 75, veteran symbol of the Palestinian struggle for statehood, beloved by most of his people and reviled by many Israelis, was "very, very sick," a Palestinian cabinet minister said on condition of anonymity. Details of the illness were unclear.

Palestinian leaders were summoned to the battered compound where Arafat has been effectively penned by Israeli forces for more than two years, accused by Israel of fomenting violence in a 4-year-old uprising. Arafat denies the charge.

Questions over Arafat's health have increased fears of chaos in Palestinian territories because he has not named an obvious successor. Security forces were put on high alert as reports of Arafat's condition swept the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"He has spells of unconsciousness," said one medical source, adding that there were contingency plans to move Arafat to a hospital for treatment -- if need be before teams of Egyptian and Jordanian doctors arrive later in the day.

After visiting Arafat at the compound, where hundreds of Palestinians gathered, cabinet minister Azzam al-Ahmad said: "He is in a stable condition, but there is no improvement. He was joking with us. He needs more medication and tests."

One confidant said Arafat preferred treatment at his "Muqata" compound to either a Palestinian hospital or going abroad if that was possible because he feared that if he left, the Jewish state would never allow him to return.

Israeli officials said they would let Arafat seek treatment wherever he wanted at home or abroad, but the question of his return was "a separate issue after he recuperates."

Palestinian officials repeatedly said in the past few days that the former guerrilla leader was recovering from a bout of "stomach flu."

But he has not appeared in public for days, stirring speculation about the gravity of his condition.

Witnesses said Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie and his predecessor Mahmud Abbas, old comrades of decades of struggle for a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, went into Arafat's headquarters. They made no comment as they left.

Arafat's spokesman denied an Al Jazeera report that the president had appointed a three-man committee to act in his absence.

Officials said the president's wife, Suha, was expected in Ramallah from her Paris home on Thursday. She has not been in Ramallah since the uprising erupted after peace talks with Israel collapsed in 2000.

Arafat underwent a minor diagnostic procedure on Monday after complaining of stomach pains. Palestinian officials said then that an endoscopy found no serious ailment but the president remained weak.

A senior official in President Bush's administration said the White House was monitoring reports on Arafat's health but had no further comment.

Arafat returned from exile a decade ago when Palestinians gained a measure of self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war with the Arabs.

Arafat won the Nobel Peace prize along with Israeli leaders Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres for interim accords he signed with Israel on the White House lawn in 1993.

But both Israel and the United States now refuse to deal with him over the accusations of violence.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has drawn up a unilateral plan for withdrawing from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

Arafat has not come up with a counter-proposal to the plan, which Palestinians fear could be aimed at denying them the viable state they seek.