Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon has died, following a long illness, reports Al Ray with Sky News.The 85-year-old’s son was quoted as saying that he had died, at the height of his power, eight years following a stroke which left him in a coma.
Sheba Medical Centre, where he was being treated, said he died at around 2pm (midday UK time).
Although top Israeli officials have issued statements memorializing and praising Sharon, others, especially those who served under him, remember Sharon’s legacy in a different light.
Brig. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Pundak, who was the governor of Gaza in the early 1970s, said in a 2012 interview that the credit that is usually given to Ariel Sharon for stopping Arab terror in Gaza in 1971 is mistaken. He said that Sharon was an unnecessarily cruel commander who once said at a meeting with officers that he would offer champagne to whoever killed an enemy fighter – and whoever brings him a wounded enemy ‘will drink soda.’
