Former Israeli President Shimon Peres, a force in the nation’s politics for decades and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, has died at 93, two weeks after suffering a stroke, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Peres had been hospitalized since the stroke on Sept. 13 and doctors had put him in an induced coma. The stroke caused heavy bleeding in Peres’ brain, hospital director Dr. Itzik Kreiss told The Associated Press. Doctors told Haaretz on Tuesday that the former leader’s condition was irreversible. He died surrounded by family at Tel Hashomer Hospital in Israel.
Peres was one of Israel’s longest-serving political figures. He was first elected to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in 1959 and held a number of top posts and cabinet positions over the next five decades. He briefly served as prime minister on three occasions, and spent his final seven years in politics as president during Benjamin Netanyahu’s tenure as prime minister.
Read the tribute in The Huffington Post Australia edition.