[News] Massive crowd bids farewell to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Massive crowd bids farewell to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

About 1.4 million people took part in the funeral procession for the
Lebanese resistance icon, while Israeli jets carried out repeated
overflights to intimidate mourners

News Desk <https://thecradle.co/authors/news-desk-9>

FEB 23, 2025 -
https://thecradle.co/articles/massive-crowd-bids-farewell-to-hezbollah-leader-hassan-nasrallah
(Photo Credit: AP)

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
<https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm242380133o> 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.

“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.”

“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.

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
<https://thecradle.co/articles/widespread-destruction-in-beirut-after-israeli-carpet-bombing-campaign>
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.
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