Shimon Peres, the former prime minister of Israel and a Nobel peace prize laureate, died Tuesday evening at the age of 93, according to multiple reports.
Peres suffered a stroke two weeks ago and was placed on a respirator following the incident. His health deteriorated despite the life support.
The former prime minister served two terms and later as the country’s ninth president from 2007 to 2014.
Peres was revered as a main author of the Oslo peace accords, which he had partnered with then-Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat. He was the the last surviving public figure who is associated with the founding of modern Israel.
“There are few people who we share this world with who change the course of human history, not just through their role in human events, but because they expand our moral imagination and force us to expect more of ourselves. My friend Shimon was one of those people,” President Obama said in a statement late Tuesday. “Shimon was the essence of Israel itself—the courage of Israel’s fight for independence, the optimism he shared with his wife Sonya as they helped make the desert bloom, and the perseverance that led him to serve his nation in virtually every position in government across the entire life of the State of Israel.”
“Barbara and I join Shimon Peres’ countless admirers around the world in saluting his singular life of service — to the universal cause of freedom, to the timeless cause of Israel, to the noblest cause of peace,” former Republican President George H.W. Bush said. “By his unyielding determination and principle, Shimon Peres time and again helped guide his beloved country through the crucible of mortal challenge. But it was by his innate humanity, his decency, that Shimon inspired the world over and helped pave a path to peace broad enough that future generations will walk it one day, side-by side.”
“The world has lost a true legend and statesman. Shimon Peres was a gift to the country he helped establish and lead, and a persistent voice for the cause of peace,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement.
