Hezbollah chief’s funeral crowd estimated at 450,000
Hundreds of thousands of people packed into a stadium in Beirut and nearby streets for the funeral of Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli air strike.
Hezbollah called on its supporters to attend the funeral in large numbers in what appears to be a move to show it remains powerful – even after suffering significant setbacks in a 14-month war with Israel.
One Lebanese official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press the crowd size was 450,000 people.
“This massive crowd confirms that Hezbollah is still the most popular party at the Lebanese level, and as a result, all the talk that Hezbollah is weak or degraded is out of place,” said Ali Fayyad, a lawmaker with the group’s political wing.
Sahar al-Attar, a mourner who travelled from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley for the funeral, said, “We would have come even under bullets” to attend Nasrallah’s burial.
Hezbollah chief vows ‘resistance is not over’
Hezbollah’s leader said “resistance” is not over as hundreds of thousands mourned slain chief Hassan Nasrallah at a Beirut funeral, demonstrating continued support for the Lebanese group after a devastating war with Israel.
In a televised address at the ceremony, Nasrallah’s successor Naim Qassem said Hezbollah would keep following his “path”, and rejected any control by the “tyrant America” over Lebanon.
“The resistance is not over, the resistance is still present and ready” to face Israel, he said.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vowed “resistance” against Israel. He praised Nasrallah as “a great mujahid [fighter] and prominent leader”.
Naim Qassem speaks at a rally supporting Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023
