Shimon Peres, former Israeli president and winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, died Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reports. He was 93.
After suffering a massive stroke on September 13, Peres, the last surviving member of Israel’s founding fathers, suffered severe organ failure on Tuesday. He also suffered irreversible brain damage a a result of the stroke.
Peres, who held many offices in the Israeli government including prime minister, defense minister and foreign minister, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, along with then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, for their work creating the Oslo Accords peace deal.
Born August 2, 1923 in Poland as Szymon Perski, Peres moved to Palestine with his family at 11, growing up in Tel Aviv.
In a statement, President Obama called Peres “the essence of Israel itself.”
“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,” Obama said, according to USA Today.
In 1997, he established the Peres Center for Peace, hoping to advance Arab-Israeli joint ventures.
Peres also authored 12 books during his lifetime.
He is pre-deceased by his wife Sonya, who died in 2011. They had three children together.