Former Israeli president Shimon Peres on respirator after stroke

Shimon Peres, the Israeli former prime minister and president who shared a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to resolve the long-running conflict with the Palestinians, suffered a stroke and was hospitalised on Tuesday, his office said.

Mr Peres (93) was initially reported to be in stable condition and conscious, but later his office said he was sedated and breathing with a respirator. He suffered a small heart attack this year and had a pacemaker implanted a week ago to deal with an irregular heart beat.

Mr Peres, one of the last living founders of the modern state of Israel, served in most senior major government positions and played a key role through much of the country’s history as both warrior and peacemaker. He remains an influential figure in Israel and abroad, maintaining an active schedule through the Peres Center for Peace, a non-profit organization that promotes reconciliation, tolerance and innovation.

Word of his latest health problems prompted expressions of concern in Israel. “I wish former president Shimon Peres a speedy recovery,” prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu wrote on Twitter.

“Shimon, we love you and the entire people wish for you recovery.” The prime minister’s office said in a separate statement that Mr Netanyahu had spoken with the director of Chaim Sheba medical centre at Tel HaShomer to check on Mr Peres’s condition.

Hostile region

Mr Peres was among the leaders who helped found Israel in 1948 and steered it through a rocky beginning in a hostile region. He served in the pre-independence military organization known as Haganah and worked for David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel. He was an important player in developing Israel’s military, including its nuclear programme, and served in multiple governments as defence minister and foreign minister. He served as prime minister twice, from 1984-1986, and after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Rabin and Yasser Arafat, the leader of Palestine Liberation Organization, for the Oslo accords that were first signed in 1993.

Mr Peres later served as president of Israel, a more ceremonial post, from 2007-2014. Army Radio reported that Mr Peres arrived at the hospital conscious and complaining about pain. He suffered a stroke at that point, the radio said. Doctors decided to sedate him to ease the strain on his brain.

– (New York Times service)