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Israel’s Peres Undergoes Emergency Cardiac Procedure

Former Israeli president and Nobel Peace Prize victor Shimon Peres, 92, was hospitalized Thursday for cardiovascular problems and is in stable condition after a medical procedure, his spokesman said.

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In a later statement, Mr Peres’s office said he underwent a successful cardiac catheterisation.

Ayelet Frish, the former president’s communications consultant, said that Peres “woke up this morning at his home with palpitations and a feeling of constriction on his chest”.

Mr Peres won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his role negotiating the Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians a year earlier, a prize he shared with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was later assassinated, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Peres completed his seven year term as president in 2014 and remains in the public eye.

Rafi Walden, his personal physician and son-in-law, said Peres would be hospitalized for “a few days”. After a Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedic arrived and administered an EKG test, he chose to take the statesman by ambulance to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.

“He feels very well”, Walden told a press conference on Israeli TV.

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He was prime minister between 1984 and 1986 and again from 1995-1996. After tributes poured in, Peres issued a statement saying the reports were exaggerated, prompting suggestions he was immortal.

Former president Shimon Peres in stable condition after suffering light heart attack