BEIRUT — Hundreds of thousands of people packed into a stadium in Beirut and nearby streets on Sunday for the funeral of Hezbollah’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Nasrallah died after Israel’s air force dropped more than 80 bombs on the terrorist group’s main operations room in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, dealing a major blow to the Iran-backed group and political party that he had transformed into a potent force in the Middle East.
He was one of Hezbollah’s founders and led it for more than 30 years, enjoying wide influence among the Iran-led axis that also included Iraqi, Yemeni and Palestinian factions.
Nasrallah also became an icon in other parts of the Arab world after Hezbollah fought Israel to a draw in a brutal monthlong war in 2006, but the group’s image suffered after it intervened on the side of former President Bashar Assad in Syria’s civil war.
Hezbollah called on its supporters to attend the funeral in large numbers in what appears to be a move to show that it remains powerful even after suffering significant setbacks in a 14-month war with Israel that left many of its senior political and military officials dead.
Nasrallah shared the funeral with his cousin and successor, Hashem Safieddine, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb a few days later. Nasrallah was laid to rest Sunday in Beirut after the funeral procession, while Safieddine will be buried in his hometown in southern Lebanon. Both had temporarily been buried in secret locations.
Hours before and during the funeral, the Israeli military also launched a series of strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon. Also on Sunday, the Israeli military released a video that said it shows the airstrike that killed Nasrallah and some of the group’s top military officials on Sept. 27, 2024.
