TEL AVIV // The Israeli president Shimon Peres was discharged from hospital today, a day after the 86-year-old passed out briefly at a ceremony. "President Peres is feeling very well this morning," his personal physician, Rafi Valdan, said shortly before Peres was released from Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv. "His health is good." Israel's elder statesman was rushed to the Tel Hashomer hospital late Saturday for tests after he fainted at the Yitzhak Rabin Centre, officials said. "The president is in very good health for an individual of his age. The clinical tests showed no heart attack or stroke," hospital director Zeev Rotshein said.
"He had a good night and should leave the hospital during the day. We recommend that he cuts down his rhythm of work over the next few days," Mr Rotshein added. "He fainted for at most a dozen seconds before regaining consciousness and at first had refused to go to the hospital," his spokeswoman Ayelet Frisch told reporters. Mr Peres, who keeps to a busy public schedule despite his advanced age, is Israel's veteran statesman who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, alongside then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, for his role in negotiating the 1993 Oslo accords.
*Reuters / AFP
