Peres rushed back to hospital with chest pains

Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA) —  Former Israeli President Shimon Peres was rushed back to the hospital with chest pains and an irregular heartbeat.

An ambulance was called to Peres’ home on Sunday night, less than a week after he was discharged from Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer after suffering chest pains and having a procedure to open a blocked artery.

Peres will remain at the hospital overnight “for observation and testing,” his spokeswoman said Sunday night in a statement.

He was taken to the hospital on Jan. 14 after feeling the chest pains  and underwent a cardiac angioplasty at Sheba’s Heart Institute. Peres was sent home five days later.

President Barack Obama called Peres over the weekend to wish him well after his heart problems earlier this month.

In an interview earlier this month with JTA, Peres said he is busier than ever, including his work with the Peres Center for Peace, which he founded.

Peres, who retired as president of Israel in 2014 after more than half a century in public life, including a stint as prime minister, won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

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