Ex-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has been in coma for nearly five years, was transferred to his home, the Sheba Medical Center said on Friday.
Sharon has been in intensive care in a hospital after a massive stroke. The former premier was transferred from the Sheba Medical Center to his Sycamore Ranch in southern Israel.
"Ariel Sharon will spend two days in his house and on Sunday will be transported back to the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv," the center said. "Such a short period of stay outside the hospital is necessary to test the equipment for life support systems installed in the Sharon's family house."
All needed equipment has been set up in Sharon's house. Medical experts will over the next two days watch and decide if Sharon is receiving adequate medical care at home.
Sharon, 82, had a severe stroke five months after he took a new strategy pulling out all Jewish settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation.
Inter-Palestinian rivalry is a major obstacle hampering Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Hamas, which has refused to recognize Israel's right to exist and reserves the right to use violence in its struggle to create a Palestinian state, has denounced the direct peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.
The talks, which resumed in early September after an almost two-year hiatus, are now under threat from the issue of ongoing Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.
TEL AVIV, November 12 (RIA Novosti)
