'The darkest night in Israel's history' (Peres on Rabin's death)

Unlike Rachel Ya'akov, the sister of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, President Shimon Peres carefully refrained from allowing the name of assassin Yigal Amir to pass his lips while speaking on Tuesday night at the state ceremony at Beit Hanassi marking the 12th anniversary of Rabin's murder.

Instead he referred to him as "the son of iniquity," saying: "He shot Yitzhak in the back and killed him. He shot the nation in the heart and traumatized it."

"Twelve years have passed since that awful night, the darkest in Israel's history," said the president.