Hezbollah staged a strength show Sunday with an elaborate and tentular funeral for its assassinated leader, Hassan Nasrallah, an event that the militant group supported by Iran Spera Relive his image porn in Lebanon After the last war with Israel.
Tens of thousands of people from all over Lebanon and in the region they crowded in the capital, Beirut, for the service, which was held in a large sports stage on the outskirts of the city. Thousands of people brought the bags in the arena, while others poured on the streets, many who transported photos of Mr. Nasrallah and won great flags of Hezbollah.
When a truck that transported Mr. Nasrallah’s coffin entered the stadium, the crowd broke out on the cries and cries while the voice of Hezbollah’s former leader – cut from his speeches – echoed the speakers. Some people launched scarves to the vehicle, drying the tears. Others sang: “We are at your service, Nasrallah!”
The “massive crowd in Lebanon is an expression of loyalty towards resistance,” said the current leader of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, in a video speech played in the stadium.
“The resistance lasts and remains present, regardless of what you might think,” he added. “Do not confuse our patience for weakness.”
The funeral arrives five months after Israel killed Mr. Nasrallah on September 27, dropping 80 bombs in several minutes on his bunker just south of Beirut. In killing Mr. Nasrallah, Israel has eliminated a leader who enjoyed an almost mythical status among the Shiite Muslims of Lebanon and led their resistance against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. His death was one of the fundamental moments of the clash between the delegates of Iran and Israel, from which Hezbollah emerged significantly weakened.
In the months that followed, the Israeli forces hit the group and its iron socket on Lebanon’s politics was canceled, with many Lebanese who blamed Hezbollah for dragging the country into one of its most fatal and destructive wars.
Hezbollah and Israel accepted a fire in November in November which forced Hezbollah to withdraw from southern Lebanon and abandon his strongholds along the border with Israel. While Israel agreed to retire from Lebanon as part of that truce, the Israeli forces remained in some parts of the southern Lebanon beyond the deadline to do it.
Now, Lebanon is in a flex point.
After decades of consolidated power, Hezbollah entered the war as the most dominant political and military force in the country. But he became a shadow of his former self.
There is a momentum that collects among the political opponents of Hezbollah inside the Lebanon to grab power from the group for the first time in decades. The new president of the country, Joseph Aouun, has committed himself to disarming Hezbollah and returning the monopoly to military power to the state.
Last week, the new Lebanese cabinet adopted a political declaration that further Minato Hezbollah, establishing that the state alone had the right to defend the territory of Lebanon. It was the first political declaration since the country’s civil war ended in 1990 that it did not mention the law of the Lebanese people to resist Israeli employment – a line that had long contributed to legitimizing the existence of Hezbollah.
Mr. Nasrallah’s funeral reflected the power struggle that takes place in Lebanon, with Hezbollah who grabbed him as an opportunity to reaffirm himself as a political force.
With the crowd of supporters on the streets to show their loyalty to Mr. Nasrallah, Hezbollah tried to send a message: even if his leaders have been killed, his drained coffers, his Syrian ally, Bashar al-Assad, overturned and His patron, Iran, Iran, Iran, weakened, the group is here to stay.
“The funeral is a launchpad,” said Mohanad Hage Ali, an elderly member of the Carnegie Middle East Center of Beirut. “They are trying to reinvent themselves” and use the death of Mr. Nasrallah “as a mobilization tool to gather people around their cause, who has had great success”.
The funeral also honored Hashem Safiedine, who actually led Hezbollah for a week after the death of Mr. Nasrallah before he was also killed by Israel.
Many present had traveled from Iran, Iraq and in Yemen, offering a reminder of the out -of -measure role of Mr. Nasrallah who unites Shiite throughout the region against Israel. Others from Lebanon had spent the night at the stadium, challenging the bitter cold to secure a place for the service.
“He meant everything to me,” said Rania Rammal, a accountant whose house in the southern Lebanon was destroyed during the war of almost 14 months of Hezbollah with Israel. “My house has disappeared, but I would like to be disappeared instead of nasrallah.”
In particular, absent from the ceremony: Mr. Aoun and the new named minister, Nawaf Salam. Both sent representatives in place – a move that highlighted their efforts to distance Hezbollah as they push for financial support from the West.
The service at the stadium was followed by a procession of hours lasting, while the crowds of supporters followed the coffin of Mr. Nasrallah on a dedicated burial site nearby. The site will act as a sanctuary for the killed leader, the Hezbollah officials said.
Israel has projected its strength show on Sunday, with the Israeli fighters roaring on Beirut and air attacks that affect different areas in the eastern and southern Lebanon, targeting what Israeli officials have described as Hezbollah’s military activity.
The Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said that the jets had to send a “clear message” that “anyone who threatens to destroy Israel and attack Israel – this will be their end”.
The war between Hezbollah and Israel broke out in October 2023 after the Lebanese militia began to shoot in Israeli military positions in solidarity with its Palestinian ally, Hamas, in Gaza.
The conflict is strongly intensified last September, with the Israeli forces inviting parts of the southern Lebanon and launched an intense bombing throughout the country which lasted about two months before the ceased the fire was reached.
Inside Lebanon, Hezbollah was widely seen how to have undergone a pungent defeat in war.
“Hezbollah forced the whole country in this war, but was not powerful enough to fight,” said Ali Mraay, 34 years old, delivering driver to Beirut. “The South – the most beautiful part of the country – is destroyed due to Hezbollah. All those who died at war is because of this Hezbollah war. “
The group now tackles difficult questions from its supporters on the fact that it can provide the billions of dollars necessary to reconstruct cities and villages flattened at war.
This support will be essential to relaunch the support of the group among the followers whose trust in Hezbollah has been tested by this war. After his last war with Israel, in 2006, Hezbollah immediately responded with handholdersi in bank cash from Iran. But his answer was slower this time.
The main terrestrial bridge of the group for receiving money from Iran through Syria was cut after Assad’s dictatorship – an important ally for Iran and Hezbollah – was overturned by the rebels in December.
The loss of Mr. Nasrallah was also devastating for the public image of the group. Mr. Nasrallah took charge when the group was a guerrilla force that fought the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, which ended in 2000, and led the organization while formally entered Lebanese politics.
He has held many roles in the life of the members of Hezbollah, acting as a religious leader, political strategist and commander in chief. His charm – a rarity among the leaders of the region – was also the key to unify the followers of Hezbollah. The current leader of the group, Mr. Qassem, does not share the stature or charisma of Mr. Nasrallah.
However, experts warn that they have not written Hezbollah.
The continuous presence of Israeli forces in southern Lebanon emits a new life in the raison d’Ezbollah: armed resistance against Israeli occupation.
And the group still maintains an arsenal who – in the context of his grumpy with the new government – has many in Lebanon to the limit.
Hezbollah, which the United States designated as a terrorist organization in 1997, has previously shown his will to sacrifice anyone – including Lebanese politicians and journalists – who challenge his grip on power.
“They lost their battle with Israel. But now there is a concern about what they will do later, “said Sami Nader, director of the Political Sciences Institute of the University of Beirut of St. Joseph, referring to Hezbollah. “If they can’t use their arms against Israel, will they use them against those inside Lebanon? This is concern. “
Dayana Iwaza AND Jacob Roubai Contributed relationships.