Doctors: Israel's Shimon Peres improves, in serious condition after stroke
Former Israeli president and prime minister Shimon Peres, who had a major stroke Tuesday, has shown signs of improvement over the past 24 hours but remains in serious condition, doctors said Wednesday.
Peres, 93, is “responsive and understands what is being said to him,” said Rafi Walden, his personal physician and son-in-law, the Times of Israel reported.
Peres is alert, awake and has tried to sit up in bed at the hospital near Tel Aviv, his aide, Ayelet Frish, said, according to the newspaper. “We don’t want to raise expectations, but there is a positive development. He is raising his hand. I saw him wake up and it was very emotional," Frish said. She added that family and friends continue to pray for his recovery.
"After 24 hours of intensive treatment, I can say that although he is still in serious condition, he is stable and there is an improvement," said Yitzik Kreiss, director of the Sheba Medical Center.
Peres is Israel's most senior statesman, a former soldier who fought for Israel's war of independence, initiated Israel's nuclear program and later helped craft the Oslo Accord calling for a Palestinian state at peace with Israel, which has yet to happen.
He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in reaching an interim peace agreement with the Palestinians. In his later years, Peres was a champion of economic and cultural exchange between Israelis and Palestinians.
Israel's ninth president received a pacemaker last week, his office said. Peres was also hospitalized twice this year for chest pains, the Times of Israel reported. He also had a mild heart attack in January and underwent surgery to open a blocked artery.
Peres has held nearly every high political office in Israel over a 55-year political career, including three terms as prime minister, plus posts as foreign minister finance minister and deputy defense minister. He served as president from 2007 to 2014.
He has remained active through his non-governmental Peres Center for Peace, which promotes coexistence between Arabs and Jews, according to the Times of Israel.
Born Shimon Perski in 1923 in a Polish town now known as Valozhyn in Belarus, Peres immigrated to Palestine in 1934 with his family. He joined the Haganah Jewish underground in 1947. He was a protege of David Ben-Gurion, who later became Israel's first prime minister and named Peres at age 24 to head Israel's navy.
As deputy defense minister from 1959 to 1965 of a country surrounded by enemies sworn to destroy it, Peres expanded Israel's state-owned weapons industry. He also started a nuclear research program that would later develop what proliferation experts believe is the region's only nuclear arsenal.
Contributing: Oren Dorell