Israel's ex-PM Ariel Sharon dies
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has died aged 85 after spending eight years in a coma following a stroke.
He was a giant of Israel's military and political scene, but courted controversy throughout his long career.
The head of the Sheba Medical Centre near Tel Aviv said Mr Sharon had died on Saturday afternoon of heart failure.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he was a great warrior but a senior Palestinian said his path was war and aggression.
Continue reading the main story Analysis Ariel Sharon's life was intimately entwined with the life of the country he loved from the moment of its birth. He fought in its war of independence in 1948 and from that point until he slipped into a coma in 2006 it seemed there was hardly a moment of national drama in which he did not play a role. He was always a controversial figure in Israeli politics - certainly not universally loved - but in mourning his passing, Israelis are marking the loss of one of the few public figures left whose career stretched back to the earliest days of their state.
"His memory will live forever in the nation's heart", the Israeli leader's spokesman said on Twitter.
But leading Palestinian political figure Mustafa Barghouti said while no-one should gloat at his death, Mr Sharon had taken "a path of war and aggression" and had left "no good memories with Palestinians".
The BBC's Kevin Connolly, in Jerusalem, says Ariel Sharon's life was intimately entwined with the life of the country he loved.
He fought in Israel's war of independence in 1948, and from that point until he slipped into a coma in 2006 it seemed there was hardly a moment of national drama in which he did not play a role, our correspondent says.
The 85-year-old became PM in 2001 and in 2005 completed a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, barely a year before he suffered a massive stroke.
His health had declined for the past week and a half, Sheba Medical Centre Director Professor Shlomo Noy told reporters.
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"Over the past week he struggled with surprising strength and determination against the deterioration in his condition. Today he departed peacefully with his loving family at his side."
One of his two sons, Gilad Sharon, said outside the hospital: "He has gone. He went when he decided to go."
He had been in a persistent vegetative state since a stroke in 2006 and Professor Noy said he had suffered "ups and downs" throughout that period.
As prime minister, Mr Sharon presided over some of the most turbulent times in Israeli-Palestinian history, a Palestinian uprising that erupted after peace talks collapsed in 2000 and a subsequent tough Israeli military response.
After playing an important part in the 1973 war, Ariel Sharon became a defence adviser to the government
As defence minister, he supervised the invasion of Lebanon in 1982
To many Israelis, he was a heroic warrior, having led decisive campaigns in the 1967 and 1973 wars.
But Palestinians remember him for Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, during which a massacre of civilians was carried out by Christian Phalangist militia in Beirut's Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Ariel Sharon was found personally responsible by an Israeli inquiry for allowing the massacre to happen.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron said Israel had lost "one of the most significant figures" in its history while French President Francois Hollande said after a long military and military career Mr Sharon had "taken the choice to turn to dialogue with the Palestinians".
Ex-US President Bill Clinton said he "gave his life to Israel".
Known as Arik, Mr Sharon entered politics after the 1973 war but he became defence minister in 1981 and took charge of the invasion of Lebanon the following year, in an attempt to remove Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) fighters who had carried out attacks across Israel's northern border.
After the Kahan commission into the Beirut massacres recommended he be removed from office, Mr Sharon was forced to resign as defence minister but stayed in government. But it was not until 2001 that he came to power as prime minister.
Ariel Sharon in 2001. 
Ariel Sharon, the former Prime Minister of Israel, died today at the  just outside Tel Aviv after his conditioned worsened significantly over the last few days. Sharon had been in a coma since suffering a stroke in January 2006.

Before becoming a politician, Sharon served in the army, having joined the  at age fourteen — the Jewish paramilitary operating in the  before the founding of the State of Israel.

Sharon was elected to the Knesset in 1973, then took a number of ministerial roles in the government including as a security adviser to Yitzhak Rabin, terms as minister of agriculture, defence, trade and industry, construction and housing, and national infrastructure. He became Foreign Minister in 1998 and Prime Minister in 2001. In 2005, Sharon left the Likud Party to form Kadima and pursued a policy of .

Sharon was married twice: his first wife Margalit died in 1962, his second wife Lily died in 2000. He is survived by two sons.