Guerrilla’s Medical Care in Paris Stirs Furor

France’s decision to allow a Palestinian guerrilla leader into the country for medical treatment was sharply criticized Thursday at home and abroad as giving shelter to an acknowledged terrorist. The outcry triggered the resignations of at least four officials.

George Habash, 65, whose Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine pioneered guerrilla hijackings of airliners, was admitted to the Red Cross Henri Dunant Hospital in Paris on Wednesday.

He was flown from Tunis, Tunisia, aboard a chartered ambulance plane after suffering an apparent stroke. French police were stationed outside the hospital.

The president of the French Red Cross and three senior government advisers resigned Thursday amid the outcry over Habash.

The presidential palace said that Georgina Dufoix, president of the French Red Cross, had offered her resignation as adviser to President Francois Mitterrand, who accepted it.

Foreign Minister Roland Dumas demanded the resignations of his Cabinet director, Bernard Kessedjian, and his secretary general, Francois Scheer, the ministry said.

The office of Prime Minister Edith Cresson said that the Cabinet director at the Interior Ministry, Christian Vigouroux, had also offered his resignation.

The decision to admit Habash for treatment had earlier sparked angry condemnation from French opposition leaders. The conservative Rally for the Republic issued a statement saying it was “deeply shocked” by the decision.

Mitterrand, moving to play down the controversy, said that Habash’s stay in France should be “extremely brief.”

He said that moving Habash to France was the result of contacts between the Palestinian and French Red Cross.

Mitterrand left open the possibility that France might take some kind of action against Habash regarding previous terrorist attacks.

In Israel, Foreign Minister David Levy said: “The fact that France is giving such a welcome to this terrorist is against all the laws that govern the behavior of European countries.”

Habash was in good condition Thursday, according to a statement from the Tunis-based Palestinian news agency WAFA.

A physician-turned-Marxist, Habash suffered a stroke in 1979 that left his right arm paralyzed. He walks with a cane.