Israel's leaders have placed wreaths at the coffin of former Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres as his body lies in state outside parliament. A ceremony was held in silence for Mr Peres, who has died at the age of 93. His coffin will remain in front of the parliament building in Jerusalem ahead of his funeral on Friday. Thousands of people are expected to pay tribute. Mr Peres was one of the last of a generation of politicians present at Israel's birth in 1948. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his role negotiating the Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians a year earlier, a prize he shared with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

RIP Peres
Source: www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37501494

AdebisiTim2:
Israel's leaders have placed wreaths at the
coffin of former Prime Minister and
President Shimon Peres as his body lies in
state outside parliament.
A ceremony was held in silence for Mr Peres,
who has died at the age of 93.
His coffin will remain in front of the parliament
building in Jerusalem ahead of his funeral on
Friday. Thousands of people are expected to
pay tribute.
Mr Peres was one of the last of a generation of
politicians present at Israel's birth in 1948.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his
role negotiating the Oslo peace accords with
the Palestinians a year earlier, a prize he
shared with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.


RIP Peres

Source: www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37501494

Mr Peres had suffered a stroke two weeks ago
and died on Wednesday in a hospital near Tel
Aviv.
Israelis are being given the opportunity to visit
Peres' coffin, which is draped in the blue-and-
white national flag, until Thursday night.
He will receive a state burial at a ceremony on
Friday at Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem.
US President Barack Obama, former US
President Bill Clinton and some of the world's
most powerful figures will attend his funeral.
"A light has gone out," Mr Obama said in a
statement about Mr Peres on Wednesday,
calling him a "friend".
"There are few people who we share this world
with who change the course of human history,
not just through their role in human events,
but because they expand our moral
imagination and force us to expect more of
ourselves," he added.
Mr Obama has ordered flags at the White
House, on all public buildings across America
and at US buildings overseas to be flown at
half-mast through sunset on Friday "as a mark
of respect".
Other world leaders set to attend his funeral
include UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French
President Francois Hollande, Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau, Australian Prime
Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Mexican
President Enrique Pena Nieto.
It is not clear if the Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas will be present. He
sent a letter of condolence to Mr Peres' family
"expressing his sorrow and sadness".
However, some Palestinians and others across
the Middle East were not mourning his
passing.
The militant Palestinian Islamist movement
Hamas said Mr Peres's death was the "end of
the history of occupation".
Mr Peres once said the Palestinians were
Israel's "closest neighbours" and might become
its "closest friends".
Once an advocate of Jewish settlements in the
occupied West Bank, Mr Peres later became a
leading political dove. He often spoke of the
need for compromise over territorial demands
in Palestinian areas.
Mr Netanyahu, who on Wednesday tweeted
that "today is the first day that the State of
Israel has existed without Shimon Peres", also
released a video statement in which he
expressed "deep sorrow" over the death.
"As a man of peace, he worked until his final
days toward reconciling with our neighbours for
a better future for our children.''
Who was Shimon Peres?
Born in 1923 in Wisniew, Poland, now
Vishnyeva, Belarus
First elected to the Knesset (Israeli
parliament) in 1959
Served in 12 governments, including once
as president and twice as prime minister
Seen as a hawk in his early years, when he
negotiated arms deals for the fledgling
nation
In 1996 he ordered the so-called Operation
Grapes of Wrath on Beirut in retaliation for
Lebanese Hezbollah's escalated rocket-fire
on northern Israel. The bombing campaign
killed and injured hundreds of civilians
A member of the government that
approved the building of Jewish
settlements on occupied Palestinian
territory, though he came to see them as
an obstacle to peace
But played a key part in reaching the Oslo
peace accords, the first deal between
Israel and the Palestinians, which said they
would "strive to live in peaceful
coexistence"