Above photo: AP.
About 1.4 million people took part in the funeral procession for the Lebanese resistance icon.
Israeli jets carried out repeated overflights to intimidate mourners.
Hundreds of thousands gathered in the Lebanese capital on 23 February to take part in the funeral of the late Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and his short-lived successor, Hashem Safieddine.
Mourners started to gather at the Camille Chamoun Sports City stadium in Beirut from the early hours of Sunday. Local estimates suggest that around 1.4 million people, including visitors from nearly 80 nations, united to pay their respects to the Lebanese resistance leaders killed by Israel.
Aerial footage of Beirut Sports City ahead of today’s funeral for the late Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. pic.twitter.com/PwJYb42ev3
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) February 23, 2025
“Today, we say farewell to an exceptional, historical leader, a national, Arab, and Islamic figure who has become a symbol of freedom for oppressed people worldwide,” Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem told the sea of people, adding that “Today’s crowd is an expression of loyalty that is unparalleled in Lebanon’s history.”
“Sayyed Hassan’s unwavering commitment to the resistance focused on Palestine and Jerusalem, and he played a crucial role in reviving this cause, sacrificing his life at the forefront … We will honor his legacy, continue on this path, and uphold his will,” Qassem stressed.
The Hezbollah leader also said Israel “can no longer maintain its occupation and aggression,” highlighting that the resistance is “entering a new phase, one that demands new tools, strategies, and approaches.”
As Nasrallah and Safieddine’s remains entered the stadium, Israeli warplanes flew at low altitude over Beirut, prompting defiant chants of “At your service, Nasrallah” and “Death to Israel.”
EXCLUSIVE | The moment Israeli warplanes flew over Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral. pic.twitter.com/5lFZcsIeP7
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) February 23, 2025
“Our warplanes flying over Nasrallah’s funeral send a message that those who threaten to destroy us are writing their own end,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told Hebrew media.
Israeli warplanes also continued to drop bombs in south and eastern Lebanon.
At least 4 Israeli attacks in Lebanon reported so far today
– 2 air raids near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre (Sour) and villages next to it.
– 2 air raids in Hermel, north east Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/ve4b6mkadB
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) February 23, 2025
Despite the Israeli provocations, Nasrallah’s funeral concluded without incident. After the ceremony, crowds started moving behind the two coffins toward their burial site.
Officials from around West Asia, including Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, participated in Sunday’s events.
“Today’s solemn funeral will affirm to the entire world that the Resistance and Hezbollah are alive, that this people remain loyal to their values, and that the path of Resistance will continue,” Araghchi said upon his arrival to Beirut earlier in the day.
“Let the enemy be aware that resistance against usurpation, oppression, and arrogance will never end and will continue until the ultimate goal is reached by the will of God,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a statement on Sunday, describing Nasrallah as the leading commander of the resistance in the region, saying he is now at the “height of honor.”
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas also issued a statement on the occasion of Nasrallah’s funeral, recalling “the heroic and honorable positions of the martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, his firm and principled adoption of the Palestinian cause, and his insistence on forming a support front with our people in the Gaza Strip.”
“We affirm that the crimes of the Zionist occupation and its cowardly assassinations of resistance leaders in Palestine, Lebanon, and everywhere will not halt our blessed path but will only strengthen our determination to continue on the path of our martyred leaders,” the statement reads.
Nasrallah was killed on 27 September in an Israeli airstrike as he met Hezbollah commanders in a bunker in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Israeli warplanes dropped over 80 tons of US-provided bunker-buster bombs on the site, causing an enormous explosion that was heard across the Lebanese capital.
Born in 1960 to a Shia Muslim family in a poor area of east Beirut, Nasrallah briefly joined the Amal Movement as a young man, inspired by its leader Sayyed Musa Sadr.
In late 1976, Nasrallah left for Najaf, Iraq, to study at the city’s religious seminary. There, he met Lebanese scholar Abbas Mussawi. After the 1978 Baathist crackdown on Shia Muslims, Nasrallah and Mussawi returned to Lebanon, where he continued his studies.
Nasrallah became head of Hezbollah’s executive council and a member of its shura council in 1985. Seven years later, Mussawi, serving as Hezbollah’s secretary general, was assassinated along with his wife and child in an Israeli airstrike.
According to Iranian General Hossein Hamedani, following the assassination of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani by the US in 2020, Tehran tasked Nasrallah with uniting its armed allies in Iraq. He also supervised the overall policy for the Resistance Axis during the US-backed Syrian war.
“I say clearly, whatever the sacrifices, whatever the consequences, whatever the possibilities, whatever the horizon the region goes towards, the resistance in Lebanon will not stop supporting and standing by the people in Gaza, the people of the West Bank, and the oppressed in that sacred land,” Nasrallah said in his final public speech before his death.