The funeral for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed last September in an Israeli strike, will be held on February 23, the Iran-backed group’s current chief Naim Qassem said on Sunday, February 2.
Nasrallah was killed in a huge Israeli air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 27, as Israel scaled up its campaign against the Iran-backed group following almost a year of cross-border hostilities. After decades at the helm of the group once seen as invincible, the killing of the charismatic leader sent shockwaves across Lebanon and the wider region.
“After security conditions prevented holding a funeral” during two months of all-out war that ended on November 27, Hezbollah has decided to hold “on February 23 a grand (…) public funeral” for Nasrallah, Naim Qassem said in a televised speech. “We hope that it will be a grand funeral procession befitting this great personality,” he said
Qassem also confirmed for the first time that leading official Hashem Safieddine had been chosen to succeed Nasrallah before he too was killed in an Israeli raid in October. The group will hold Safieddine’s funeral on the same day as Nasrallah’s. Safieddine will be buried “as Secretary-General” or leader of Hezbollah, because “we had (…) elected His Eminence Sayyed Hashem as Secretary-General (…) but he was martyred on October 3, a day or two before the announcement,” Qassem said.
Nasrallah will be buried on the outskirts of Beirut “in a plot of land we chose between the old and new airport roads,” while Safieddine will be buried in his hometown of Deir Qanun in southern Lebanon, he said.
Nasrallah had been temporarily buried elsewhere due to security concerns, he said. Shiite Muslim rites provide for such a temporary burial when circumstances prevent a proper funeral or the deceased cannot be buried where they wished.
During his speech Sunday, Qassem also pressed Lebanese authorities to pressure Israel to stop ceasefire violations. The Israeli army missed a January 26 deadline to complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon and has since launched strikes there. It now has until February 18 to withdraw.
Israel had made clear it had no intention of meeting the initial deadline, charging that the Lebanese army had not fulfilled its end of the bargain.
The Lebanese authorities have also accused Israel of violating the agreement.
“The Lebanese state is fully responsible for following up, pressuring and trying to prevent as much as it can, through sponsors and international pressure, this violation and this Israeli aggression,” Qassem said.