The head of the Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah said on Sunday that his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, will be buried on Feb. 23, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
While “security conditions” prevented a funeral during the war with Israel that ended with the Nov. 27 truce, the terror organization’s leadership has now decided to hold a “grand procession” for its slain chief near the Beirut airport, Naim Qassem said in a televised speech.
“We hope that it will be a grand funeral procession befitting this great personality,” he stated in remarks translated by Agence France-Presse.
A funeral for top Hezbollah terrorist Hashem Safieddine, who had been elected to succeed Nasrallah before he, too, was eliminated by Israel, is to be held on the same day. Safieddine will be buried with the same honors as Nasrallah because “he was martyred on Oct. 3, a day or two before the announcement” of his new position, Qassem revealed.
Nasrallah will be buried in the Beirut area “in a plot of land we chose between the old and new airport roads,” while Safieddine will be buried in his hometown of Deir Qanoun al-Nahr in Lebanon’s south, he said.
Qassem in his address acknowledged that Nasrallah was killed “at a time when circumstances were difficult” for the terrorist organization, forcing it to conduct a temporary burial for him according to Shi’ite traditions.
On Sept. 27, the Israeli Air Force dropped at least a dozen 2,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on Nasrallah’s bunker in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Two unnamed Israeli officials told The New York Times that more than 80 bombs were dropped over the span of several minutes during the strike, but did not confirm the type of munitions used.
A week later, an IAF strike on a bunker in the Dahiyeh district killed Safieddine—a maternal cousin of Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council and a leading candidate to replace the terror chief.
Visiting Israel Defense Forces troops in Southern Lebanon on Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a warning to the Iranian-backed terrorists: “I suggest that the successor of Nasrallah’s successor not make a mistake about Israel’s determination, lest he pay a very heavy price.”
According to Katz, Jerusalem will not allow a return to the situation that prevailed on the Israel-Lebanon border before the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist massacre. “We will foil threats and respond with full force,” the defense minister said.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect at 4 a.m. on Nov. 27, ending nearly 14 months of hostilities.
Under the agreement with the Lebanese government, Israeli soldiers are to gradually withdraw from Southern Lebanon as the Lebanese Armed Forces and U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon assume responsibility for ensuring Hezbollah remains disarmed south of the Litani River.
