Shortly after 11 p.m., several hours after Peres, 93, was admitted to Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer near Tel Aviv, hospital officials said the statesman remained in stable but serious condition in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.
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Initially, the office of the ninth president said Peres was “conscious and in stable condition, but suddenly, his condition took a turn for the worse”.
Concern mounted over the condition of 93-year-old Peres, widely respected as an elder statesman both in Israel and overseas, after his stroke on Tuesday that included bleeding.
Peres has held virtually every senior political office in Israel over a seven-decade career, including three terms as prime minister. His son, Hemi Peres, said the family has been overwhelmed with the love and affection it has received from Israel and around the world. Earlier this year, Mr Peres was twice hospitalised for heart problems but quickly discharged.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who defeated Mr Peres in 1996 to become prime minister, personally called the hospital to inquire on Mr Peres’ condition and posted a Facebook message wishing him a speedy recovery.
A spokeswoman for Shimon Peres says the former Israeli president has suffered a stroke and been rushed to a hospital. In that role, Peres concluded the Oslo Peace Accords, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 with Rabin and Yasser Arafat.
Through budget restraints, subsidy cuts, and tough fiscal decisions while serving as finance minister, Peres was able to lift Israel out of the economic crisis in the mid-1980s, navigating the economy out of a major catastrophic situation, Meital said. “The Prime Minister conveyed the prayers of the entire nation for a quick recovery”, said a statement released by his office. I want to tell them all that there was nothing more important to my father than Israel and its people. “And I pray with all my heart, together with my family, that things will improve from this point on”.
The elder statesman is best known for supporting peace initiatives in the Middle East, getting Israel out of an economic slump in the 1980s, for making Israel a nuclear superpower in the ’50s and ’60s, and as President of Israel.
Israeli police officers stand at the entrance to the hospital where former Israeli President Shimon Peres is hospitalized, in Tel Aviv, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. We are receiving a huge number of messages from Israel and overseas from all our friends who are surrounding us with love and care. He was a protege of David Ben-Gurion, who later became Israel’s first prime minister and named Peres at age 24 to head Israel’s navy.
He once hawkishly rejected any compromise with hostile Arab states, but said he was converted after 1977, when Egyptian president Anwar Sadat made a historic visit to Jerusalem, leading to the first Arab-Israeli peace treaty.
A veteran politician, Mr Peres has held nearly every major political office since Israel was founded in 1948, and was the architect of Israel’s secret nuclear programme.
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Born in Poland in 1923, Peres emigrated to what was then British mandatory Palestine when he was 11 and joined the Zionist movement in the 1940s.
