World leaders gather for funeral of Nobel laureate Peres

World leaders including US President Barack Obama and Prince Charles were bidding farewell to Israeli ex-prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres on Friday as his funeral began under massive security.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was among attendees at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl national cemetery and was seated in the front row, reportedly at the request of Peres's family.

Abbas knew Peres well and negotiated with him. In an extremely rare move, he also shook hands and spoke briefly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon arrival.

Security forces were on high alert as the funeral began, with roads closed and thousands of officers deployed.

Some 70 countries were represented, with the range of leaders illustrating the respect Peres gained over the years in his transformation from hawk to committed peace advocate.

His death on Wednesday at the age of 93 drew tributes from around the world for Israel's last remaining founding father.

An estimated 50,000 people filed past his coffin as it lay in state outside parliament in Jerusalem throughout the day on Thursday.

Former US president Bill Clinton was among those who paid their last respects there, appearing moved as he stood in silence before the coffin.

Clinton had helped usher in the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s, which resulted in the Nobel prize for Peres.

After Peres's death, he called him "a genius with a big heart".

Obama arrived on Friday morning and plans to depart after the ceremony. He wore a black Jewish skullcap as he took his seat at the ceremony.

He and Clinton are scheduled to speak, along with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Netanyahu and parliament speaker Yuli Edelstein.

Others to speak include renowned writer Amos Oz as well as Peres's two sons and daughter.

The funeral was taking place under a white canopy in the leafy national cemetery, where many Israeli dignitaries are buried.

Around 8,000 police were being deployed for the commemorations. Preventative arrests of both Jews and Palestinians were made ahead of the funeral to avoid potential disruptions, police said.

"We are dealing with an operation on an unprecedented scale," said police chief Roni Alsheikh.

The last time such an event was held in Israel was the 1995 funeral for Yitzhak Rabin, Peres's rival in the Labour party but partner in negotiating the Oslo accords.

Peres will be buried next to Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish extremist opposed to the accords.

- Criticism from Arab nations -

In a career spanning seven decades, Peres held nearly every major office, serving twice as prime minister and as president, a mainly ceremonial role, from 2007 to 2014.

He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for his role in negotiating the Oslo accords, which envisioned an independent Palestinian state.

He was also an architect of Israel's nuclear programme, with the country now considered the Middle East's sole nuclear-armed nation, though it has never declared it.

While Peres is hailed in the West as a peacemaker, many in the Arab world, including among the Palestinians, regard him a "war criminal".

They have cited his involvement in successive Arab-Israeli wars, the occupation of Palestinian territory and his support for settlement building before his work on Oslo.

He was also prime minister in 1996 when more than 100 civilians were killed while sheltering at a UN peacekeepers' base in the Lebanese village of Qana fired upon by Israel.

Islamist movement Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, condemned Abbas for offering condolences to Peres's family, saying it "disregards the blood of the martyrs and the suffering of the Palestinian people".

Abbas, who signed the Oslo accords along with Peres, however called him a "brave" partner for peace.

There have been very few tributes from Arab nations, though Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry was attending the funeral.

Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab countries to have signed peace treaties with Israel.

- Naomi Campbell, Joe Biden -

Born in Poland in 1923, Peres emigrated to what was then British-mandated Palestine when he was 11.

He joined the Zionist struggle and met David Ben-Gurion, who would become his mentor and Israel's first prime minister.

Peres became director general of the nascent defence ministry at just 29.

After leaving office as president, he had sought to maintain an active schedule, particularly through his Peres Center for Peace.

He was hospitalised in January for heart trouble, but said he was eager to return to work upon leaving.

In March, he met British supermodel Naomi Campbell at his Peres Center for Peace during an event linked to International Women's Day. On the same day, he met visiting US Vice President Joe Biden.

He had given a speech on September 13, the day he suffered a stroke. He never recovered and died two weeks later.

Despite his reputation as a statesman, Peres never managed to outright win a national election. Many in Israel opposed to the Oslo accords also blamed him for what they saw as their failure.

But in later life, especially during his time as president, he came to be widely embraced.

Source: AFP