Morning update
Good morning Middle East Eye readers,
The funeral procession for Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has begun in Tehran, with state media reporting the attendance of millions.
The procession in the capital is expected to last for 10 to 12 hours. His body will later be taken through the city of Qom on Tuesday, then to Iraq on Wednesday, before returning to the city of Mashhad on Thursday for burial.
Here are some of the other latest developments across the region:
Iran will fully close Tehran’s airspace on Monday as part of funeral arrangements, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) has reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that some Christian villages in southern Lebanon "asked to be annexed to Israel" for protection from Hezbollah. The mayor of a majority Christian town in Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil district has rejected these claims, with attacks against the country's Christian community increasing in recent times.
Palestinian teenager Walid Nidal Abu Sneineh on Sunday was killed by Israeli forces after he was gunned down during a raid on the Qalandiya refugee camp. Two other children were wounded in the same raid.
The Israeli army is preparing to withdraw from two areas as part of a pilot project where the Lebanese army is set to take exclusive control and gradually disarm Hezbollah, according to the Israeli news outlet Yedioth Ahronoth.
At least four Palestinians were killed and several others were injured as a result of Israeli strikes and shelling across the Gaza Strip early on Monday.
