Body of former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon arrives at the Knesset Ariel Sharon's body was brought from Tel Aviv to the Knesset in Jerusalem on Sunday to lie in state ahead of a military funeral planned for Monday, as Israelis marked the passing of the controversial and larger-than-life former rightwing prime minister and wartime leader. Sharon, who died on Saturday afternoon at age 85, will be buried on a hilltop overlooking his family's Sycamore Ranch in the southern Negev region, alongside the grave of his late wife Lily. Israel's Ministerial Committee on Symbols and Ceremonies decided on Saturday evening that the late leader, who served as Israel's prime minister in 2001-2005, would be given a military funeral, with his casket to be borne by eight Israel Defence Force generals. US vice-president Joe Biden, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who heads the Middle East Quartet, are among the foreign dignitaries due to attend Monday's ceremony. In Jerusalem, some roads were closed on Sunday as Sharon's casket was brought to the city, where thousands of Israelis were expected to pay their respects. Sharon died in hospital in Tel Aviv early Saturday afternoon after eight years in a coma, after his vital organs failed and his heart stopped beating, doctors said. Vladimir Putin was among the foreign leaders who paid tribute to Sharon at the weekend, calling him an "outstanding statesman and military commander." Former US president George W Bush, whose term in office coincided with the late Israeli leader's, said that Sharon was "a warrior for the ages and a partner in seeking security for the Holy Land and a better, peaceful Middle East." Ban-Ki Moon, UN secretary-general, said through a spokesman that he was "saddened" by Sharon's death. The late leader will be remembered for having carried out "the painful and historic decision to withdraw Israeli settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip" in 2006. Among Palestinians, Sharon's death revived bitter memories of his role in violent military campaigns, from his Unit 101"s raid in 1948 of the West Bank village of Qibya, in which 69 people died, to the 1982 massacre of more than 1,000 refugees at the Sabra and Shatila camps during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and Israel's violent incursions into the West Bank to suppress the second intifada two decades later. "He left a legacy and a precedent in Palestine that is characterised by bloodshed, cruelty, lawlessness, and total disregard for human rights and human lives," Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee said in a telephone interview. People describe him as a bulldozer, but a bulldozer is relatively benign compared to what he did. He left an impact whose influence is with us to this day. Israeli television channels gave Sharon's death and its aftermath blanket coverage, and front pages of Sunday's newspapers were dominated by the news and analysis of the late leader's achievements. "The life of Ariel Sharon and the life of the state of Israel were intertwined into a single cord," Nahum Barnea wrote in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily. Many of the reflections focused on Sharon's career as a war-making rightwinger who late in life became an advocate of an independent Palestinian state, and drew a line from his legacy to the failure of Benjamin Netanyahu's current government to achieve peace with the Palestinians. Yossi Verter, writing in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, compared Sharon to Israel's founding leader David Ben Gurion, and said he had "the capacity to decide as well as to lead," and added: "Unfortunately, there are no other people among us like this man."