'Snatched from me' Father finally able to bury his son

As Michel Illouz slowly edged his way through the crowds under the cypress trees and palms at the cemetery in Ra'anana, a city 13 miles north of Tel Aviv; he thanked as many of those attending as he could.

- Daniel Boffey

He had invited the Israeli public to join his family in the mourning of his 26-year-old son, Guy, whose body was returned from Gaza on Monday. Thousands answered the call. They lined the streets and turned up at the cemetery in such numbers that the plan to hold the ceremony in the hall had to be abandoned. It was staged instead outside, to the sound of birdsong.

This was the first funeral since the final 20 living hostages were returned from Gaza, along with seven bodies. A further 21 of the dead hostages remain missing, but at least this family now had a place to go to grieve and remember their son, friends said.