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| Leaders from around the world paid their respects, including Barack Obama (Reuters) |
World leaders have hailed the vision of the late Israeli leader, Shimon Peres, as he was laid to rest days after his demise at 93 years old.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu portrayed him as "a great man of the world", as he drove the commendations.
US President Barack Obama said the presence of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at the burial service was an indication of the "unfinished business of peace".
Mr Abbas was among many foreign dignitaries attending in Jerusalem.
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| Former US President Bill Clinton helped usher in the Oslo peace accords which won a Nobel Peace Prize for Mr Peres (EPA) |
Security was increased ahead of the ceremony, with few people arrested.
Conveying an emotional address, Mr Netanyahu said that while Israel and the world lamented for Mr Peres there was hope in his legacy.
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| The UK's Prince Charles and French President Francois Hollande also bade their farewells (Reuters) |
"Shimon lived a life of purpose," he told thousands gathered at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl burial ground.
"He soared to incredible heights. He swept so many with his vision and his hope. He was a great man of Israel.
"He was a great man of the world."
'One of the giants'
Former US President Bill Clinton, who arranged the Oslo peace concurs amongst Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s, said he was Israel's "biggest dreamer".
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| Taken months after the Oslo Agreement was signed, this photograph shows Shimon Peres, left, with Mahmoud Abbas, centre, and Egypt's then Foreign Minister Amr Moussa (AP) |
"He imagined all the things the rest of us could do. He started life as Israel's brightest student, became its best teacher and ended up its biggest dreamer.''
US President Barack Obama closed the commendations, contrasting Mr Peres with "some of the other giants of the 20th Century that I've had the honour to meet, like Nelson Mandela and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth".
Mr Peres, he said, believed in equality for Palestinians.
"Even in the face of terrorist attacks, even after repeated disappointments at the negotiation table, he insisted that as human beings Palestinians must be seen as equal in dignity to Jews and must therefore be equal in self determination."
Before the ceremony began, Mr Abbas was seen shaking hands and talking briefly with Mr Netanyahu. The last considerable open meeting between the two leaders was in 2010, with peace efforts totally suspended since April 2014.
Hamas, the hardline Palestinian group that runs Gaza, condemned Mr Abbas' choice to go to the ceremony.
Jordan and Egypt - the main two Arab nations to have signed peace deals with Israel - both sent official representatives to the ceremony.
Mr Peres' notoriety in the region is entangled by the 1996 shelling of Qana in southern Lebanon that murdered more than 100 individuals shielding in an UN compound.
It occurred when, as prime minister, he ordered an offensive against a wave of rocket fire by the militant Hezbollah movement.
He later said it was a "bitter surprise" to find that several hundred people were in the camp at the time.
The funeral was the biggest such event in Israel since the funeral of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was killed by a Jewish nationalist in 1995.
Mr Peres suffered a stroke two weeks prior and died on Wednesday in a hospital near Tel Aviv.
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