Hezbollah says funeral for Nasrallah to be held on Feb. 23

BEIRUT

Hezbollah on Sunday annoucned that the funeral for it longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli attack last year, will take place on Feb. 23 in Beirut.

In a televised statement, Secretary General Naeem Qassem said Nasrallah "was martyred at a time when the conditions were difficult, and there was no possibility for a funeral."

Nasrallah “was temporarily buried (due to security conditions), and we have now decided to hold a public funeral on Feb. 23," he added.

Qassem said a funeral will also be held for Sayyid Hashem Safieddine, another senior Hezbollah official who was killed in an Israeli airstrike nearly a week after Nasrallah's assassination.

He said Safieddine will be buried with the title of secretary-general, confirming for the first time that he had been elected as Nasrallah's successor before being killed.

"Sayyid Hashem Safieddine will also be mourned as the secretary-general of the party, as four days after Nasrallah's assassination, we elected Hashem as secretary-general, and we consider him martyred in that capacity," Qassem said.

The Hezbollah chief said Nasrallah will be buried on the outskirts of Beirut "in a plot of land on the airport road," while Safieddine will be laid to rest in his hometown of Deir Qanoun in southern Lebanon.

Nasrallah was assassinated by Israel on Sept. 27, 2024 in a series of airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs. Safieddine was targeted on Oct. 3.

Israel was to complete its army’s withdrawal from Lebanon by Jan. 26 under a ceasefire deal, but it refused and the deadline was extended to Feb. 18.

The truce ended shelling between Israel and the Lebanese group that began in October 2023 after the onslaught in the Gaza Strip commenced, and escalated into a full-scale conflict in September 2024.

The more than a year of fighting killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and injured many others.​​​​​​​