Israel was preparing on Thursday for the death of Ariel Sharon, its hawkish former prime minister, after a sudden deterioration in his health prompted doctors to acknowledge that his life was in imminent danger.
Mr Sharon, 85, who has been in a coma since suffering a massive stroke eight years ago, was described as critical after his kidneys and several other vital organs malfunctioned, apparently due to an infection.
His two sons, Gilad and Omri, were keeping vigil at his bedside at the Sheba Medical Centre in Tel Hashomer Hospital, near Tel Aviv, as Israeli officials said plans were in hand to stage a state funeral for one of the most controversial figures in the Jewish state’s 65-year history.
“He is in critical condition and his life is definitely in danger,” Dr Zeev Rotstein, the hospital’s director, told reporters. “I am no prophet, but the feeling of the doctors treating him and also that of the family with him is that there is a turn for the worse.”
The elaborate arrangements required for a state funeral would enable the suspension of the usually strict Jewish religious edict requiring the dead to be buried within a day, said Mark Regev, spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Israeli premier. That would allow world leaders more time to attend.