BEIRUT — (AP) — Tens of thousands of people packed into a stadium in Beirut early Sunday to attend 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 militant group's main operations room in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital. His death was a major blow for the Iran-backed group that the late leader transformed into a potent force in the Middle East.
He was one of the group's founders and led it for more than 30 years, enjoying wide influence among Iran-backed groups in the region. The late Hezbollah chief was widely respected in the so-called Iran-led axis of resistance that included Iraqi, Yemeni and Palestinian factions.
Sahar al-Attar, a mourner who traveled from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley for the funeral said: “We would have come even under bullets” to attend Nasrallah’s burial, she said. “It is an indescribable feeling.”
Nasrallah shares the funeral with his cousin and successor, Hashem Safieddine, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb a few days later. The late Hezbollah leader will be laid to rest later Sunday in Beirut while Safieddine will be buried in his hometown in southern Lebanon. Both had temporarily been buried in secret locations.
As the coffins were paraded before the huge crowd, men on a platform tossed flowers, while some threw clothing articles in the hope they come in contact with the coffins, believing it would bless them.
Officials, including Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived at the Lebanese capital’s main sports stadium. Lebanese parliament speaker and representatives of the president and prime minister were also in attendance at the funeral believed to be Lebanon’s largest in two decades.
Qalibaf and Araghchi arrived on separate flights from Tehran Sunday morning in an apparent lifting of a ban on flights from Iran that Lebanese authorities imposed after the Israeli army claimed the Islamic Republic was smuggling cash to Hezbollah on commercial flights.
Israeli jets flew at low altitude over Beirut as Nasrallah’s coffin was paraded into the stadium while his speech following the 2006 war with Israel played. The crowd chanted: “Death to Israel” in response.
“Today we bid farewell to an exceptional historical, national, Arab and Islamic leader,” Hezbollah's Secretary-General Naim Kassem said in a live televised speech. He was not at the stadium.
“The resistance is still present and strong in numbers and weapons, and the inevitable victory is coming,” he added. “Israel must withdraw from the areas it still occupies.”
“We won’t allow America to control our country,” he said. "Israel will not take with politics what they did not take in the war.”
In the crowded stands, thousands of Hezbollah supporters waved the group’s yellow flag and chanted: “Death to America, death to Israel.”
Sarah Taqi, an attendee, said the large number of mourners shows that Hezbollah is still strong. “There is pain, but we have to be strong."
Senior Hezbollah official Ali Daamoush told reporters Saturday that about 800 figures from 65 countries will be attending the funeral in addition to thousands of individuals and activists from around the world.
Hezbollah has been calling on its supporters to attend the funeral in large numbers in what appears to be a move to show that the group remains powerful after suffering major blows during a 14-month war with Israel that left many of its senior political and military officials dead.
Hours before and during the funeral, the Israeli military launched a series of strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon. The Israeli army said in a statement that it had “conducted a precise intelligence-based strike on a military site containing rocket launchers and weapons in Lebanese territory.” Lebanon’s state news agency reported that one of the strikes wounded a Syrian woman.
“The Israeli Air Force planes that are flying now in the skies over Beirut above the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, adding that it is to “send a clear message: whoever threatens to annihilate Israel and strike Israel - that will be his end.”
Hezbollah was dealt another blow with the fall of the Assad family's five-decade rule in Syria in early December, a strong ally of the Lebanese group and a main route for the flow of weapons and money from Iran.
As part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal that ended the war with Israel on Nov. 27, Hezbollah is not supposed to have an armed presence along the border with Israel. The group's rivals have been calling on it to lay down its weapons all over Lebanon and become a political faction.
Hezbollah has prepared for the funeral by setting up the stadium to host tens of thousands of people while giant screens were placed along the airport road outside, titling the funeral: “We are committed to the covenant.”
Tight security measures have been taken, including the closure of major roads in the area of the funeral. Lebanese army and police forces were placed on alert and the use of drones was banned in Beirut and its suburbs during the day. Flights to and from Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport were set to halt for four hours starting at noon.
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