Tens of thousands of people packed into a Beirut stadium on Sunday to pay respect to long-time Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated in an Israeli bombing last September.
Flights to Beirut were booked out with thousands of people arriving from across the world. Attendees included Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.
Even some Lebanese people who do not support Hizbullah told The Irish Times they felt upset, calling this the end of an era; though others said they only felt anger, blaming Nasrallah for throwing Lebanon into a war they did not want.
Teacher Sam Hijaz (40), who travelled to the funeral from Sydney, Australia, called Nasrallah “our hero” and “the leader of the resistance”. Hijaz’s family come from south Lebanon, and he credited Nasrallah with “getting Israel out of the south”, referring to Hizbullah’s role in ending an 18-year Israeli occupation in 2000, which he said enabled his parents to “live in peace and harmony ... Hopefully we can get back to that.”
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Cleric Nasrallah, who was born in 1960, led Hizbullah from 1992, including through the 2006 war with Israel. Sunday’s funeral also honoured Hashem Safieddine, Nasrallah’s successor, who was killed before he could properly take up the post.
Conflict between Hizbullah and Israel was reignited on October 8th, 2023, when Hizbullah fired rockets “in solidarity” with Hamas. In September 2024 it erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched what experts have called one of the most intense aerial campaigns in contemporary history. Close to 4,000 people in Lebanon were killed between the beginning of the conflict and the ceasefire in late November, according to a Lebanese health ministry toll, while more than one million were displaced.
Hizbullah suffered heavy losses. Apart from Nasrallah’s death on September 27th, and Safieddine’s on October 3rd, X account @QalaatM, which tracks Hizbullah death notices, documented more than 1,700 fighters killed between October 2023 and November 2024. Some mourners on Sunday wore pins or other reminders of their own “martyrs”.
Despite their setbacks, it was clear Hizbullah intended Sunday’s funerals as a show of strength. A big screen played videos of supporters chanting and raising their fists, while standing in the rubble of destroyed buildings.
The crowd chanted “at your service, Nasrallah”; “death to America” and “death to Israel”.
While Hizbullah supporters are mostly Shia Muslims, one woman held aloft a sign that included both Nasrallah’s face and a picture seemingly of Jesus on the cross. “In the name of our Christianity and our Bible we are with you Nasrallah,” it read.
Men, women and children had tears pouring down their faces as the coffins were brought in. Israeli jets flew loud and low over the stadium at least twice – while the coffins were being moved, and later when Hizbullah leader Naim Qassem was speaking remotely through a screen, presumably for security reasons.
Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said the planes were “conveying a clear message: whoever threatens to destroy Israel and attacks Israel – that will be the end of him. You will specialise in funerals – and we will specialise in victories.”
Sunday’s funeral also saw “activists and influencers” – some of whom were Irish – being received by Hizbullah’s media relations team.
Tara Reynor O’Grady stood close to the front, waving a large Irish flag. She said she was attending the funeral as a human rights defender, along with Irish comedian, writer and film-maker Tadhg Hickey. “I’m here because so many Irish people cannot be here, and would come if they could, to give solidarity to the Lebanese people who have been invaded for standing on principle with regards to the genocide in Gaza and in Palestine.” She said she had the impression that Nasrallah was “their version of Michael Collins”.
Asked about atrocities Nasrallah is accused of overseeing in Syria, where the militant group allied with former dictator Bashar al-Assad, Reynor O’Grady said: “That’s an interesting question. And I don’t have an opinion.” She said she hopes Syria has an “equal government that is a shared power”.
The funeral was attended by American online influencer Jackson Hinkle, who has millions of followers on various social media platforms. He said he was invited by an “independent journalist group” and paid for the trip himself because he wanted to “honour the life and legacy of Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed using my taxpayer dollars”. He also aimed to visit south Lebanon and document “everything that is ongoing, the Israeli aggression [which] is still continuing to this day”.
Hizbullah is a political party and social movement, running healthcare facilities and aiding vulnerable people, though its militant wing is designated as a terrorist group by the US and others. It has been described as a “state within a state”, with opponents saying it has held too much power, contributing to political paralysis in a country struggling under a series of crises, including the 2019 economic collapse and the 2020 port explosion.
Its supporters say they see Hizbullah as their protection against Israel, which this month failed to abide by a deadline to withdraw from the country’s south. Israeli politicians say their forces remain in five strategic positions, something Hizbullah condemns as an “occupation”.
Israel has been accused of violating the ceasefire hundreds of times, though Israeli officials say they are “forcefully” enforcing its terms. In the lead-up to and during Nasrallah’s funeral, they again bombed south Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
