RAMALLAH: Pale­sti­nian President Mahmud Abbas was hospitalised in the West Bank on Sunday, doctors and Palestinian officials said, giving conflicting accounts of the leader’s condition.

It is the third time Abbas, 82, has been hospitalised in less than a week. Abbas unde­r­­went minor ear surgery on Tuesday but went back into Al Istishari Hospital in Ramallah briefly on Saturday night, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

He was then rushed back later on Sunday for what doctors described only as “medical tests”.

Dr Saed al Sarahneh, medical director of the hospital, spoke outside the private hospital late on Sunday, saying that Abbas had entered in the morning “for medical tests after the surgery he had three days ago in his middle ear. All the tests are normal and his medical condition is reassuring”.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which is headed by Abbas, said on its Twitter account that Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat had visited the leader in hospital and quoted Erekat as saying: “The President is in good health.”

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2018