American Jewish billionaire gambling emperor Sheldon Adelson was buried in the Jewish cemetery of the Mount of Olives in occupied Jerusalem on Friday.

The funeral was held in the presence of a small number of mourners, including his widow Miriam, due to the restrictions imposed by the Corona pandemic.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received Adelson's body upon his arrival Thursday evening from the United States to Ben Gurion Airport, in a coffin wrapped with American and Israeli flags, and said that his death was a "great loss for the Jewish people," according to the newspaper, "Israel Hayom".

Netanyahu described him in a previous statement as "an astonishing hero of the Jewish people, the Jewish state and the alliance between Israel and America."

And Adelson passed away Monday evening at the age of 87, due to complications from leukemia.

The burial ceremony of the Gambling emperor Adelson at the Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives (Reuters)

Adelson grew up in a poor Jewish family in Boston, before amassing enormous wealth thanks to a sprawling chain of casinos and hotels in Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore that made him one of the world's richest people and an influential figure in American and Israeli politics.

The gambling emperor was a generous supporter of outgoing US President Donald Trump and the Israeli prime minister.

And Adelson fought the direction of former Democratic President Barack Obama, before becoming the main donor to Trump's 2016 and 2020 election campaigns, and a major source of funding for the Republican Party.

According to Reuters, Adelson Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress awarded nearly $ 220 million during the 2020 election cycle.

At the same time, Adelson was famous for his various projects and funding in Israel, and he was a prominent supporter of Trump's decision in 2017 to consider Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy to it, and he was also opposed to the two-state solution to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu described Adelson as "a hero of the Jewish people and the Jewish state" (Reuters)

Adelson founded the newspaper "Israel Hayom" in 2007, which is a free publication and is one of the most widely circulated newspapers in Israel.

His fortune is estimated at $ 35 billion, according to Forbes, which ranked him 28th among billionaires in 2020.

Alongside the "Las Vegas Sands Corp", the largest casino company in the world, Adelson and his wife established the "Adelson Foundation", which says its main goal is "to strengthen the State of Israel and the Jewish people."