BEIRUT (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people gathered on the outskirts of Beirut on Sunday to pay their respects to Hezbollah’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a stunning blow to the Iran-backed group.
The killing of Nasrallah, who led the Shi’ite Muslim group through decades of conflict with Israel and oversaw its transformation into a military force with regional sway, was one of the opening salvos in an Israeli escalation that badly weakened Hezbollah.
Carrying pictures of Nasrallah and Hezbollah flags, supporters gathered early on Sunday for a mass funeral for Nasrallah and other slain leaders of the group at a stadium in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut.
The 55,000-seat Camille Chamoun Sports City stadium was nearly full hours before the ceremony was set to start.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, an Iraqi delegation including Shi’ite politicians and militia commanders, and a delegation from Yemen’s Houthis were expected to attend.
The mass funeral is aimed at showing strength after Hezbollah emerged battered from last year’s war with Israel, which killed most of its leadership and thousands of fighters and wreaked destruction on south Lebanon.
The impact on Hezbollah was compounded by the ousting of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria, severing a key supply route.
“We may have lost a great deal as a man, but we have not lost the value of the resistance because the resistance is clinging on,” said Hassan Nasreddine, a Lebanese man headed to the ceremony from the south.
The funeral was also being held for Hashem Safieddine, who led Hezbollah for a week after Nasrallah’s death. He was killed in an Israeli strike before he had been publicly announced as Nasrallah’s successor.
After his death, Nasrallah was buried temporarily next to his son, Hadi, who died fighting for Hezbollah in 1997. His official funeral was delayed to allow time for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon under the terms of a U.S.-backed ceasefire which ended last year’s war.
Though Israel has largely withdrawn from the south, its troops continue to hold five hilltop positions in the area, and Israel carried out airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Sunday, saying it had identified Hezbollah activity.
The conflict spiralled after Hezbollah opened fire in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
(Reporting by Hassan Hankir, Ahmed Kerdi, Mohamed Abd El Ghany, Ali Hankir, MohammThaer al-Sudani, Emilie Madi, Firas Makdesi and Maya Gebeily; Editing by Helen Popper)
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