The funeral in Beirut, attended by Hezbollah officials and allies, aimed to show the group’s strength despite conflict with Israel and loss of leaders.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Beirut have attended the funeral of Hezbollah’s ex-leader, Hassan Nasrallah, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Nasrallah died when Israel’s air force dropped more than 80 bombs on the Hezbollah’s main operations centre in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital.
His death marked a significant setback for the Iran-backed group and political party, which Nasrallah had shaped into a potent force in the Middle East.
One of Hezbollah’s founding members, Nasrallah led the organisation for more than three decades, exerting considerable influence across the Iran-led “axis of resistance”, which also included factions in Iraq, Yemen, and Palestine.
He became a widely recognised figure in the Arab world after Hezbollah fought Israel to a stalemate in the 2006 war. However, the group’s reputation suffered after its involvement in Syria’s civil war on behalf of former President Bashar al-Assad.
Hezbollah had urged its supporters to attend the funeral at the Sports City Stadium in Beirut on Sunday in large numbers, seemingly as a demonstration of its continued strength despite significant losses in its 14-month conflict with Israel, which has resulted in the deaths of several senior political and military figures.
A Lebanese official estimated the turnout at around 450,000 people, while other sources suggested higher numbers. The pro-Hezbollah pan-Arab television network Al-Mayadeen reported a crowd of 1.4 million.
“This massive crowd confirms that Hezbollah is still the most popular party at the Lebanese level, and as a result, all the talk that Hezbollah is weak or degraded is out of place,” said Ali Fayyad, a lawmaker with the group’s political wing, who attended the ceremony.
Attendees from around the world
Many mourners travelled from across Lebanon to pay their respects.
“We would have come even under bullets,” said Sahar al-Attar, who journeyed from the Bekaa Valley for the funeral.
Giant screens along the route displayed the funeral’s title: “We are committed to the covenant.”
Senior Hezbollah official Ali Daamoush said on Saturday that about 800 prominent figures from 65 countries were due at the funeral, alongside thousands of supporters and activists.
Among those attending were Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Lebanon’s parliament speaker, as well as representatives of the president and prime minister, were also present.
The funeral also drew participants from outside the Middle East, including Western activists. Irish campaigner Tara O’Grady waved an Irish flag and expressed her solidarity with Lebanon.
O’Grady stated that she came “to stand with the people of Lebanon and their resistance against the Zionist regime who are brutally continuing to bomb the south of Lebanon”.
Four Israeli warplanes flew at low altitude over Beirut while Nasrallah’s coffin was paraded into the stadium. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the fighter jets flying over the funeral “send a clear message: Whoever threatens to annihilate Israel and strike Israel — that will be his end.”
Hezbollah remains defiant
As part of the US-brokered ceasefire that ended the war with Israel on 27 November, Hezbollah is not supposed to have an armed presence along the border with Israel.
The group suffered another major setback in December when the al-Assad family’s decades-long rule in Syria collapsed, disrupting a key route for weapons and funding from Iran.
Hezbollah’s opponents have increasingly called for it to disarm and transition into a purely political organisation.
However, in a televised address played during the funeral, Nasrallah’s successor, Hezbollah’s current Secretary-General Naim Kassem, said the group remained strong.
“The resistance is still present and strong in numbers and weapons, and inevitable victory is coming,” he declared.
Kassem also reiterated Hezbollah’s demands for Israel to withdraw from five key strategic border positions in southern Lebanon where Israeli forces remain deployed.
“Israel must withdraw from the areas it still occupies,” he added.
Additional sources • AP
