Former Israeli president Shimon Peres dies at 93

Israeli ex-president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres died on Wednesday, his personal doctor told, some two weeks after suffering a major stroke.

The 93-year-old died in his sleep at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT), said Rafi Walden, who is also Peres’s son-in-law. A press conference was being planned for around 7:00 am (0400 GMT). Peres had been in hospital near Tel Aviv since September 13, when he was admitted feeling unwell and suffered the stroke with internal bleeding. Israel has been on edge over the health of its last remaining founding father, who had been under sedation and respiratory support in intensive care.

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.

After suffering the stroke, he received an outpouring of support from across the world, including from Pope Francis, US President Barack Obama, the Clinton family, Donald Trump, Britain’s ex-premier Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin. UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon called him “tireless in seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians”. There had been signs of improvement last week.

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

Born in Poland in 1923, Peres emigrated to what was then Britishmandated 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.