New Delhi:
Hundreds of individuals gathered on the outskirts of Beirut immediately to pay respects to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, practically 5 months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a surprising blow to the Iran-backed group.
Nevertheless, the sound of Israeli fighter jets flying above the large gathering briefly drowned out the slogan-shouting individuals under.
Visuals from the funeral present what the native media stated had been 4 Israeli F-16s flying over the funeral procession.
Israel’s military immediately stated “the world is a greater place” now.
“At present is Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral. At present the world is a greater place,” the Israeli military posted on X.
The killing of Nasrallah, who led the Shi’ite Muslim group by means of many years of battle with Israel and oversaw its transformation right into a army drive with regional sway, was one of many opening salvos in an Israeli escalation that badly weakened Hezbollah.
Carrying photos of Nasrallah and Hezbollah flags, supporters gathered early on Sunday for a mass funeral for Nasrallah and different slain leaders of the group at a stadium within the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, information company AFP reported.
The 55,000-seat Camille Chamoun Sports activities Metropolis stadium was practically full hours earlier than the ceremony was set to start out, AFP reported.
⚡️Zionist terrorists warplanes over the funeral pic.twitter.com/pnCIMv4Zgg
— Conflict Monitor (@WarMonitors) February 23, 2025
Iran’s supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed continued “resistance” in opposition to Israel.
“The enemy ought to know that resistance in opposition to usurpation, oppression, and vanity will not be over and can proceed till the specified aim is achieved,” Khamenei stated in an announcement revealed on his official web site.
The mass funeral is aimed toward exhibiting energy after Hezbollah emerged battered from final 12 months’s warfare with Israel, which killed most of its management and 1000’s of fighters and wreaked destruction on south Lebanon.
The influence on Hezbollah was compounded by the ousting of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria, severing a key provide route.
“We might have misplaced an amazing deal as a person, however we have now not misplaced the worth of the resistance as a result of the resistance is clinging on,” Hassan Nasreddine, a Lebanese man headed to the ceremony from the south, advised AFP.
The funeral was additionally being held for Hashem Safieddine, who led Hezbollah for every week after Nasrallah’s loss of life. He was killed in an Israeli strike earlier than he had been publicly introduced as Nasrallah’s successor.
After his loss of life, Nasrallah was buried briefly subsequent to his son, Hadi, who died preventing for Hezbollah in 1997. His official funeral was delayed to permit time for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon beneath the phrases of a US-backed ceasefire which ended final 12 months’s warfare.
With inputs from AFP