Tens of thousands attend funeral of ex-Hezbollah leader Nasrallah

Tens of thousands of people gathered at a stadium in Beirut to attend the funeral of former Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike. This was reported by the Associated Press (AP) on February 23.

According to the agency, the funeral is considered the largest in Lebanon in the past 20 years. Officials from across the region, including Iran, are expected to attend. A senior Hezbollah official, Ali Daamush, called on the movement's supporters to attend the funeral to "tell the enemy that this resistance will continue."

The funerals for Nasrallah and his cousin Hashim Safi al-Din, also killed in an Israeli airstrike, are seen as a demonstration of Hezbollah's strength after the serious blows the movement has suffered recently, including the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

AP reported that Israel's military launched a series of strikes in southern Lebanon hours before the funeral began, saying it had hit a military facility with rocket launchers and weapons. Also as the funeral ceremony began, Israeli jets flew over Beirut at low altitude.

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Nasrallah was eliminated by Israel on September 27, 2024, at the organization's headquarters in Beirut. He was eliminated in the afternoon when IAF planes dropped bombs on Hezbollah's command center, which was deep underground.

In November, Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz announced the defeat of Hezbollah and called Nasrallah's elimination a major achievement. He said the state only needs to keep up pressure on the Shiite organization to reap the fruits of defeating it.