Hezbollah chief says slain predecessor Nasrallah to be buried 23 February

The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said on Sunday that his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, will be buried on 23 February, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, Reuters has reported.

Nasrallah served as Hezbollah’s secretary general for more than 30 years. He was killed on 27 September as Israel ramped up its air attacks on Hezbollah targets just days before Israeli troops began ground incursions in southern Lebanon.

His successor Naim Qassem said in a televised address on Sunday that Nasrallah was killed “at a time when circumstances were difficult,” forcing the movement to conduct a temporary burial for him according to religious tradition.

Qassem said that the movement had now decided to hold “a grand funeral procession with a large public presence” for both Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, another top Hezbollah official killed in an Israeli air strike nearly a week after Nasrallah. It was confirmed by Qassem for the first time that Safieddine had been elected as Nasrallah’s successor but was killed before the appointment was made public. He said Safieddine would also be buried with the title of secretary general.

The killings of both Nasrallah and Safieddine — as well as many of the group’s top military commanders — threw Hezbollah into disarray. The group announced on 29 October that Qassem, the group’s deputy leader, had been elected as its head.

A ceasefire agreed in late November ended hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel and set a 60-day deadline for Israeli troops to withdraw from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah to remove its fighters and arms from the area and Lebanese troops to deploy there. That deadline was extended last month until 18 February. Nevertheless, Israel has continued to carry out some air strikes on parts of Lebanon, accusing Hezbollah of violating the terms of the ceasefire.

Hezbollah says that Israel is responsible for the breaches and that the Lebanese state and the deal’s foreign sponsors — the US and France — should prevent Israel’s violations. However, the movement has not threatened to resume fighting.

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