Former Israeli president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres dies age 93 after stroke
Veteran statesman had two spells as Prime Minister in career spanning life of the country.
FORMER Israeli PM and president Shimon Peres has died at 93 following a stroke he suffered two weeks ago.
Peres was president of the country from 2007 to 2014, served as prime minister, and won the Nobel peace prize for his role as one of the architects of the Oslo Peace Accords. He retired from politics in 2014.
Doctors at the Tel Aviv hospital where he died said Peres suffered irreversible brain damage and severe organ failure caused by the massive stroke he sustained on September 13.
Peres was awarded the Nobel peace prize with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for his role as Israel's foreign minister in setting up 1993's Oslo peace accords that saw the Israeli government recognise Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation as representative of the Palestinian people.
The accords also saw the PLO renounce terrorism and recognise Israel's right to exist in peace.
Historic moment . . . Peres, then Israel's foreign minister, signs Oslo Accords with Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Bill Clinton
Reacting to news of Peres' death, US President Barack Obama said: "a light has gone out, but the hope he gave us will burn forever. Shimon Peres was a soldier for Israel, for the Jewish people, for justice, for peace, and for the belief that we can be true to our best selves — to the very end of our time on Earth, and in the legacy that we leave to others."
Former US president Bill Clinton, who hosted the final meetings and signing of the accords, described Peres as "a leader who championed [Israel's] security, prosperity, and limitless possibilities from its birth to his last day on earth."
Peres was a leading figure in Israeli politics since the state's birth, and was considered by many to be the last surviving member of the state's founding fathers.
As well as acting as as both Prime Minister and President, he also served as minister of defence and foreign minister as part of a career spanning more than sixty years.
A light has gone out, but the hope he gave us will burn forever
Barack Obama
He joined the Haganah, predecessor to the modern-day Israeli Defence Forces in 1947 where he met Israel's founder and first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who put him in charge of acquiring weapons for the group.
Peres was head of naval services during Israel's war of independence in 1949, though he never officially served as a soldier in the country's military.
He worked in the country's defence department and he was instrumental in setting up the country's nuclear programme, until he was elected to Israel's parliament in 1959.
He was first made a minister in 1969 by then-PM Golda Meir.
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He first became unofficial acting prime minister after a scandal in 1977, before his first official spell from 1984 to 1986.
In 1993 when foreign minister he took part in secret negotiations with Arafat and the PLO, starting the process that eventually led to the Accords signed in 1993.
His final term followed the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
Peres only held office until 1996 when he was beaten at the polls by Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister, following an upsurge in violence that derailed the peace process.
After narrowly losing the poll in 2000, Peres was elected as President in 2007.
He continued to work for peace for the rest of his career. He was the first Israeli head of state to speak to a Muslim country's Parliament in 2007, and continued to call for further peace talks between the Israeli government and Palestinians.
In 2008 Peres received an honorary knighthood from the Queen, and in 2012 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama.
He is survived by three children, Tsivia, Yoni and Nehemia. His wife, Sonya, died in 2011.