Arafat alive, hospital confirms
Yasser Arafat is alive, the head doctor at a French military hospital said today, refuting reports saying the Palestinian leader had died.
“Mr Arafat is not dead,” Christian Estripeau, a spokesman for the Percy Military Training Hospital in Clamart outside Paris, said in a brief statement.
Earlier Israeli TV cited cited security officials as saying they had been told by a reliable French source that Arafat had died.
However, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said there has been no change in Arafat’s condition.
Palestinian officials said Arafat was in a coma in the intensive care unit of a French military hospital.
President George Bush was wrong told Arafat had died while he held a White House press conference. “God bless his soul,” said Bush.
Bush was taking questions from reporters two days after his re-election when Luxembourg’s prime minister announced that Arafat had died.
“My first reaction is God bless his soul,” the president said. “My second reaction is that we will continue to work for a free Palestinian state that’s at peace with Israel.”
