Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres in serious condition after major stroke

Former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres, the last of Israel’s founding fathers, was in serious condition on Wednesday  after suffering a major stroke and doctors were treating him in intensive care.

Nationwide concern mounted over the condition of 93-year-old Peres, widely respected as an elder statesman both in Israel and abroad, after his stroke on Tuesday.

“Mr. Peres passed the night without any other incident,” Yitzhak Kreiss, director of the Sheba Medical Centre at Tel HaShomer in Ramat Gan, told reporters outside the hospital near Tel Aviv.

“He is in a stable but still serious condition.” Kreiss spoke in Hebrew, but when speaking in English a short time later, he described Peres’s condition as “critical.”

Peres’s personal physician and son-in-law, Raphy Walden, said that Peres was responsive when his sedation was lessened.

“He seemed to follow what we were telling him,” he said. “Next time that we try to lessen his sedation I hope that we will be able to get in touch with him.”

Kreiss had late Tuesday described Peres as having suffered a “major stroke with a component of bleeding.”

He had been sedated in the intensive care unit and was breathing with the help of a respirator.

Doctors later decided not to operate for the time being. Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted the head of the hospital’s stroke unit as saying “the damage isn’t the main issue currently.”

“We’re working on getting him to a state in which his life won’t be in jeopardy,” Dr. David Orion said.

Peres’s son Chemi told journalists late Tuesday that “we are going to have to take difficult decisions apparently later, but not yet.”

“Myself and my family members are going through difficult times, difficult hours,” he said.

“I know that my father did not care about anything as much as he cares about people, as much as he cares about

Israel, the Jewish people, and the people in Israel,” he said. “And I will take this opportunity on his behalf to send all of you his love.”

The last of Israel’s founding fathers, Peres has held nearly every major office in the country, including prime minister twice and president, a mostly ceremonial post, from 2007 to 2014.