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Ariel Sharon to be buried at a family farm in Israel on January 13

Israeli former premier has died at the Sheba Medical Centre of Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv

© EPA/KEVIN FRAYER/POOL

TEL AVIV, January 12, /ITAR-TASS/. Israel’s Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will be buried next to his wife Lily who died in 2000 at the Shikmim private family farm on January 13, Monday, the Israeli TV reports.

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Israeli former premier Ariel Sharon has died at the Sheba Medical Centre of Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv, Sharon’s son, Gilad, said on Saturday.

“He passed when he wanted to pass,” Gilad told journalists.

Medics said on January 1 that Sharon’s condition “deteriorated significantly”.

On January 2, director Tel Hashomer Hospital, Professor Zeev Rotstein said Sharon was in critical condition and his life was in danger after several vital organs failed.

The former Israeli premier has been in a coma since 2006 following a stroke that incapacitated him at the height of his political power.

As a politician, Sharon became known as “the bulldozer” for his bold tactics, contempt for his critics and hard-line approach. He was elected to premiership in 2001. In 2005, he directed the withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip, bringing an end to the country’s 38-year military control of the territory. Later quitting the Likud Party, he formed a more central Kadima Party.

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