“All the parameters are stable: blood pressure, heart rate, blood saturation”, Peres’ son-in-law and personal physician Rafi Walden told reporters, adding that this gave him a “certain optimism”. “In the coming hours we will conduct further examinations and will update regarding his condition”, the doctor noted. “The time will come when we must make some decisions”, he said, depending on how things develop. “We thank everyone for your love and care”, he said in a statement outside of the hospital.
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When leaving hospital on January 19, Peres said he was keen to get back to work. “His devotion to the state of Israel is not doubted by anybody”, Ephraim Imbar, Director of the Begin-Sadat Center told The Media Line.
“We’re working on getting him to a state in which his life won’t be in jeopardy”, Dr. David Orion said. “We thank everyone for your love and care”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who defeated Peres in 1996 to become prime minister, personally called the hospital to enquire on Peres’ condition and posted a Facebook message wishing him a speedy recovery. He said he hopes Peres will soon “resume making his clear, smart and enlightened voice heard”.
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.
Tuesday’s news is the latest health scare for the elder statesman.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Peres’s office said he was in serious but stable condition. It was announced that he was put under sedation to ease the continued treatment, and was connected to a respirator.
He stepped down as president in 2014 after completing a seven-year term.
Valdan, who is married to Peres’ daughter, has said he does not believe that his life is in imminent danger but called it a hard time for the family.
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.
He became director general of the nascent defence ministry at just 29 years old.
Over a seven-decade career, he held virtually every senior political office in Israel, including three terms as prime minister and stints as foreign and finance minister.
He served in some of these positions a couple of times.
Peres shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for signing the 1993 interim Oslo peace accords.
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