Acclaimed Israeli author Amos Oz dies at 79

JERUSALEM - Israel's renowned novelist Amos Oz died on Friday afternoon at the age of 79 after struggling with cancer, his family said.

"My beloved father has just died of cancer after a rapid deterioration," Oz's daughter, Fania Oz-Salzberger, said on Twitter. She added that he passed away peacefully in his sleep, "surrounded by his loved ones."

Israel's President Reuven Rivlin eulogized Oz, an Israel Prize laureate whose novels were published in 45 languages in 47 countries.

"(He was) a literary giant. Our most glorious artist. Rest in peace our dear Amos," Rivlin said in a statement released by his office.

Oz, one of Israeli most internationally famous authors, was born in 1939 in Jerusalem. He was a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba in southern Israel.

He has received numerous awards and honors, including the Goethe Prize, the Legion of Honor of France, the Prince of Asturias Award in Literature, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, and the Heinrich Heine Prize.

His name was mentioned many times as a favorite nominee for the Nobel Prize for literature.

Oz was a prominent advocate of the Israeli peace movement and the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He frequently spoke out against the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, denouncing them as a major violation of Palestinians' human rights and a hurdle for peace.