Palestine President Abbas to join leaders at funeral of Peres

JERUSALEM: Israeli leaders, former US president Bill Clinton and crowds of mourners gathered outside parliament Thursday to pay last respects to Nobel Peace Prize

JERUSALEM: Israeli leaders, former US president Bill Clinton and crowds of mourners gathered outside parliament Thursday to pay last respects to Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres, whose body was lying in state.

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A major security operation was being put in place ahead of Friday’s funeral, which is to be attended by leaders from across the world, including US President Barack Obama and Britain’s Prince Charles.

In a rare visit to Jerusalem, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas was also planning to attend, Palestinian officials told AFP. Peres’s death on Wednesday at age 93 after suffering a major stroke triggered an outpouring of grief and tributes that hailed the Israeli ex-president’s transformation from hawk to fervent peace advocate.

On Thursday morning, a solemn ceremony saw President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, parliament speaker Yuli Edelstein and opposition leader Isaac Herzog lay wreaths beside Peres’s flagdraped coffin at a plaza outside parliament. The ceremony was held in silence, with none of the leaders speaking. Later in the day, Clinton arrived in Israel and travelled directly to view Peres’s coffin, appearing moved as he stood silently before it.

Clinton had helped usher in the Oslo peace accords of the 1990s, which resulted in the Nobel prize for Peres. The plaza was opened to the public following the visit by the Israeli leaders, and thousands of mourners made their way into the grounds after passing through stringent security checks.