Israeli ex-president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres died on Wednesday, his personal doctor told, some two weeks after suffering a major stroke.
The 93-year-old died in his sleep at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT), said Rafi Walden, who is also Peres’s son-in-law.
A press conference was being planned for around 7:00 am (0400 GMT).
Peres had been in hospital near Tel Aviv since September 13, when he was admitted feeling unwell and suffered the stroke with internal bleeding.
Israel has been on edge over the health of its last remaining founding father, who had been under sedation and respiratory support in intensive care.
Peres held nearly every major office in the country, serving twice as prime minister and also as president, a mostly ceremonial role, from 2007 to 2014.
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.
The former hawk turned dove was widely respected both in Israel and abroad.
After suffering the stroke, he received an outpouring of support from across the world, including from Pope Francis, US President Barack Obama, the Clinton family, Donald Trump, Britain’s ex-premier Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called him “tireless in seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians”.
There had been signs of improvement last week.
On September 18, Peres’s office said doctors planned to gradually reduce his sedation and respiratory support to judge his response.
His personal physician and son-in-law Rafi Walden had said at the time that Peres had seen “very slow, moderate improvement”.
But on Tuesday, a source close to Peres said his condition had taken a downturn and he was “fighting for his life”. Family members arrived at the hospital.
In January, Peres was hospitalised twice because of heart trouble.
