21.jpg (Photo : i0.sinaimg.cn)
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's son Gilad Sharon announced his father's death on Jan.11 at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv.
Sharon had first suffered a stroke in 2005, but improved with treatment. In 2006, he suffered a second stroke with severe cerebral hemorrhaging that put him into a coma from which he never regained consciousness.
"He's gone. He's gone to the place he's always wanted to go," Gilad said.
The Israeli government announced that Sharon's body will lie in state at the Israeli parliament on Sunday. A state memorial is planned for Sharon on Monday after which he will finally be put to rest at his ranch in a private family service.
On hearing the news, current Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu praised Sharon as "a great warrior and a political leader" whose deeds will "forever remain in the hearts of the people."
Sharon was similarly praised by Israeli President Shimon Peres who said, "Sharon was a great protector living his life without fear and a warrior who loved his people and will forever be loved by his people."
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, on the other hand, called Sharon's death a "historic moment" and described Sharon as "stained with the blood of the Palestinian people who were wiped out "during his campaigns against them."
Sharon, who was 85 years old at the time of his death, was one of Israel's most controversial and iconic figures. A famous general before taking up politics, he was elected Prime Minister in March 2001, by virtue of his deft leadership of the Israeli military campaigns in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In 2005, however, Sharon shocked the nation when he brokered a unilateral ceasefire to end the fighting in the Gaza Strip, which halted the construction of new Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories, and withdrew Israeli forces from Palestinian land splitting with the right-wing Likud political party to form his own centralist party called Kadima.
