Israeli Ex Leader Shimon Peres Dies

Tel Aviv, 27 Dzulhijjah 1437/28 September 2016 (MINA) – Two weeks after suffering a major stroke, Israel’s ex leader Shimon Peres passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 93.

According to Hareetz, his funeral is set to be held on Friday, and will be attended by U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while a Channel 2 report said that the public will be able to pay its respects a day earlier.

In January, Peres was hospitalised twice because of heart trouble.

In the first case, the hospital said he had suffered a “mild cardiac event” and underwent catheterisation to widen an artery.

He was rushed to hospital a second time just days later with chest pains and an irregular heartbeat.

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Peres had sought to maintain an active schedule despite his age, particularly through events related to his Peres Center for Peace.

He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for his role in negotiating the Oslo Accords, which envisioned an independent Palestinian state.

Born in Poland in 1923, Peres emigrated to what was then British-mandated Palestine when he was 11. He joined the Zionist movement and met David Ben-Gurion, who would become his mentor and Israel’s first prime minister.

Peres became director general of the nascent defence ministry at just 29 years old. He was also seen as a driving force in the development of Israel’s undeclared nuclear programme.(T/R04/R03)

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Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)