Israeli ex-president and Nobel laureate Peres dies

The 93-year-old died in his sleep at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT), Rafi Walden, who is also Peres’s son-in-law said.

He had been surrounded by family members, a source close to Peres said. A press conference was planned for later in the morning.

US President Barack Obama immediately hailed Peres as a friend who “never gave up on the possibility of peace.”

“There are few people who we share this world with who change the course of human history, not just through their role in human events, but because they expand our moral imagination and force us to expect more of ourselves,” Obama said in a statement.

“My friend Shimon was one of those people.”

Former US president Bill Clinton, who helped usher in the Oslo peace accords of the 1990s, said “the Middle East has lost a fervent advocate for peace and reconciliation.”

“I’ll never forget how happy he was 23 years ago when he signed the Oslo accords on the White House lawn, heralding a more hopeful era in Israeli-Palestinian relations,” Clinton said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his “profound sadness” and opposition leader Isaac Herzog, the head of Labour, Peres’s longtime party, said he will be “forever remembered as an icon of Israel’s history.”

Peres held nearly every major office in the country, serving twice as prime minister and also as president, a mostly ceremonial role, from 2007 to 2014.

He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for his role in negotiating the Oslo Accords, which envisioned an independent Palestinian state.

The former hawk turned dove was widely respected both in Israel and abroad.

 

Active in old age

Peres had been in hospital near Tel Aviv since September 13, when he was admitted feeling unwell and suffered the stroke with internal bleeding. He had been under sedation and respiratory support in intensive care.

But there were signs of improvement last week, and on September 18 Peres’s office said doctors planned to gradually reduce his sedation and respiratory support to judge his response.

Walden had said at the time that Peres had seen “very slow, moderate improvement”.

But on Tuesday a source said his condition had taken a downturn and he was “fighting for his life”. Family members arrived at the hospital.

In January, Peres was hospitalised twice because of heart trouble.

In the first case, the hospital said he had suffered a “mild cardiac event” and underwent catheterisation to widen an artery.

He was rushed to hospital a second time just days later with chest pains and an irregular heartbeat.

Peres had sought to maintain an active schedule despite his age, particularly through events related to his Peres Center for Peace.

When leaving hospital in January, Peres said he was keen to get back to work.

“I’m so happy to return to work, that was the whole purpose of this operation,” he said.

In March, he met British supermodel Naomi Campbell at his Peres Center for Peace during an event linked to International Women’s Day. On the same day, he met visiting US Vice President Joe Biden.

Born in Poland in 1923, Peres emigrated to what was then British-mandated Palestine when he was 11.

He joined the Zionist struggle and met David Ben-Gurion, who would become his mentor and Israel’s first prime minister.

Peres became director general of the nascent defence ministry at just 29 years old.

Beyond his accomplishments in the public eye, he was also seen as a driving force in the development of Israel’s undeclared nuclear programme.

Peres once confided that the secret to his longevity was daily exercise, eating little and drinking one or two glasses of good wine.