Israel’s Ninth President Shimon Peres Passes Away at 93

Former Israeli Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres has passed away at the age of 93 in Israel.

Shimon Peres’s health had been deteriorating after he suffered a stroke on September 13. He had been hospitalized twice in January due to heart trouble, although his condition had improved.

The Sheba Medical Centre in Tel Aviv announced his death at 3:40 am on Wednesday morning. The news was broken by Israel’s official government-run Israel New Agency.

The soldier-turned-statesman served as Israel’s ninth president from 2007 to 2014. He was born in the Polish town of Valozhyn in Belarus and served in the Israeli army, having fought in the nation’s War of Independence in addition to initiating Israel’s nuclear program.

In 1994, Peres won the Nobel Peace Price — along with his Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat — for his role in negotiating the Oslo Accords, an agreement which called for an independent Palestinian state operating under peace with the State of Israel.

That same year, Peres held secret meetings with Jordan’s King Hussein which led to the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.

Two short years later, he founded the Peres Center for Peace in 1996 to promote peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Jews in the State of Israel.

Peres became Prime Minister of Israel for the third time after Rabin was assassinated in 1995.

The United Nation’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement wishing for a “swift and full recovery” for Peres, whom he described as “tireless in seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”

In 2014, Peres received the Congressional Gold Medal from Congress during a visit to the White House.

Last month, Peres sent out a tweet celebrating his 93rd birthday, announcing that he had created a Snapchat account:

A man who devoted his life to achieving peace, his passing was mourned internationally:

House Speaker Paul Ryan issued the following statement upon hearing of Peres’s passing:

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