Abbas with hand in his air, during meeting

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hospitalised in the West Bank

Ramallah: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been hospitalised in the West Bank, Palestinian officials said on Sunday, giving conflicting accounts on the leader’s condition.

It was the third time Abbas, 82, had been hospitalised in a week. He underwent minor ear surgery on Tuesday and was hospitalised again briefly overnight on Saturday, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

One Palestinian official said Abbas went back into hospital again on Sunday due to complications after Tuesday’s ear surgery. Abbas’ temperature was high, he said.

However, a source at al-Istishari hospital in Ramallah said the President’s condition was unrelated to the ear operation.

“The President will stay in hospital until tomorrow. He is being given antibiotics to treat an inflammation in the chest,” the hospital source said. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he or she was not authorised to speak with the media.

Abbas’ hospitalisation has coincided with an escalation in Israeli-Palestinian tensions after Israeli troops shot dead dozens of Palestinian protesters on the Gaza border on May 14 as the new US embassy opened in Jerusalem.

The Gaza Strip is controlled by the Islamist group Hamas, a bitter political rival of Abbas’s secular Fatah movement.

Read the full article written by Ali Sawafta at the Sydney Morning Herald.