Hezbollah stages show of strength at funeral for assassinated leader

Boston Globe

23-02-2025

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The 'massive crowd in Lebanon is an expression of loyalty to the resistance,' Hezbollah's current leader, Naim Kassem, said in a video speech played in the stadium.
'The resistance endures and remains present, regardless of what you may think,' he added. 'Do not mistake our patience for weakness.'
The funeral comes five months after Israel killed Nasrallah on Sept. 27, dropping 80 bombs over several minutes on his bunker just south of Beirut. In killing Nasrallah, Israel eliminated a leader who enjoyed near-mythical status among Lebanon's Shi'ite Muslims and led their resistance against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. His death was one of the seminal moments in the confrontation between Iran's proxies and Israel, from which Hezbollah has emerged significantly weakened.
In the months that followed, Israeli forces battered the group, and its iron grip on Lebanon's politics came undone, with many Lebanese blaming Hezbollah for dragging the country into one of its deadliest and most destructive wars.
Hezbollah and Israel agreed to a cease-fire in November that forced Hezbollah to withdraw from southern Lebanon and abandon its strongholds along the border with Israel. While Israel agreed to withdraw from Lebanon as part of that truce, Israeli forces have remained in parts of southern Lebanon past the deadline to do so.
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Now, Lebanon is at an inflection point.
After decades of consolidating power, Hezbollah entered the war as the country's most dominant political and military force. But it has become a shadow of its former self.
There is gathering momentum among Hezbollah's political opponents within Lebanon to seize power back from the group for the first time in decades. The country's newly appointed president, Joseph Aoun, has pledged to disarm Hezbollah and return the monopoly on military power to the state.
Last week, the newly appointed Lebanese Cabinet adopted a policy statement that further undermined Hezbollah, laying out that the state alone had the right to defend Lebanon's territory. It was the first policy statement since the country's civil war ended in 1990 that did not mention the Lebanese people's right to resist Israeli occupation — a line that had long helped legitimize Hezbollah's existence.
Nasrallah's funeral reflected the power struggle playing out in Lebanon, with Hezbollah seizing on it as an opportunity to reassert itself as a political force.
With throngs of supporters in the streets to show their loyalty to Nasrallah, Hezbollah sought to send a message: Even though its leaders have been killed, its coffers drained, its Syrian ally, Bashar Assad, toppled, and its patron, Iran, weakened, the group is here to stay.
'The funeral is a launchpad,' said Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. 'They are trying to reinvent themselves' and use Nasrallah's death 'as a mobilizing tool to rally people around their cause, which has taken a great hit.'
The funeral service also honored Hashem Safieddine, who effectively led Hezbollah for a week after Nasrallah's death before he, too, was killed by Israel.
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Notably absent from the ceremony were Aoun and the newly appointed prime minister, Nawaf Salam. Both sent representatives in their place — a move that highlighted their efforts to distance themselves from Hezbollah as they push for financial support from the West.
The service at the stadium was followed by an hourslong procession, as the throngs of supporters followed Nasrallah's coffin to a dedicated burial site nearby. The site will serve as a shrine for the slain leader, Hezbollah officials said.
Israel projected its own show of force Sunday, with Israeli fighter jets roaring over Beirut and airstrikes hitting several areas in eastern and southern Lebanon, targeting what Israeli officials described as Hezbollah military activity.
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