Hezbollah put on a show of strength on Sunday with an elaborate and sprawling funeral for its assassinated leader, Hassan Nasrallah, an event the Iran-backed militant group hopes will revive its battered image in Lebanon after the latest war with Israel.
Tens of thousands of people from across Lebanon and the region flocked to the capital, Beirut, for the service, which was held at a large sports stadium on the outskirts of the city. Thousands packed into the arena, while others spilled out onto the streets, many carrying pictures of Mr. Nasrallah and waving large Hezbollah flags.
When a truck carrying Mr. Nasrallah’s coffin entered the stadium, the crowd erupted in shrieks and cries as the voice of the former Hezbollah leader — clipped from his speeches — echoed from speakers. Some people tossed scarves toward the vehicle, wiping away tears. Others chanted: “We renew the oath, Nasrallah!”
The “massive crowd in Lebanon is an expression of loyalty to the resistance,” Hezbollah’s current leader, Naim Qassem, said in a video speech played in the stadium.
“The resistance endures and remains present, regardless of what you may think,” he added. “Do not mistake our patience for weakness.”
The funeral comes five months after Israel killed Mr. Nasrallah on Sept. 27, dropping 80 bombs over several minutes on his bunker just south of Beirut. In killing Mr. Nasrallah, Israel eliminated a leader who enjoyed near-mythical status among Lebanon’s Shiite Muslims and led their resistance against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. His death was one of the seminal moments in the confrontation between Iran’s proxies and Israel, from which Hezbollah has emerged significantly weakened.
In the months that followed, Israeli forces battered the group, and its iron grip on Lebanon’s politics came undone, with many Lebanese blaming Hezbollah for dragging the country into one of its deadliest and most destructive wars.
Hezbollah and Israel agreed to a cease-fire in November that forced Hezbollah to withdraw from southern Lebanon and abandon its strongholds along the border with Israel. While Israel agreed to withdraw from Lebanon as part of that truce, Israeli forces have remained in parts of southern Lebanon past the deadline to do so.
Now, Lebanon is at an inflection point.
After decades of consolidating power, Hezbollah entered the war as the country’s most dominant political and military force. But it has become a shadow of its former self.
There is gathering momentum among Hezbollah’s political opponents within Lebanon to seize power back from the group for the first time in decades. The country’s newly appointed president, Michel Aoun, has vowed to disarm Hezbollah and return the monopoly on military power to the state.
Last week, the newly appointed Lebanese cabinet adopted a policy statement that took a direct shot at Hezbollah, laying out that the state alone had the right to defend Lebanon’s territory. It was the first policy statement since the country’s civil war ended in 1990 that did not mention the Lebanese people’s right to resist Israeli occupation — a line that had long helped legitimize Hezbollah’s existence.
Mr. Nasrallah’s funeral reflected the power struggle playing out in Lebanon, with Hezbollah seizing on it as an opportunity to reassert itself as a political force.
With throngs of supporters in the streets to show their loyalty to Mr. Nasrallah, Hezbollah sought to send a message: Even though its leaders have been killed, its coffers drained, its Syrian ally, Bashar al-Assad, toppled and its patron, Iran, weakened, the group is here to stay.
“The funeral is a launchpad,” said Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. “They are trying to reinvent themselves” and use Mr. Nasrallah’s death “as a mobilizing tool to rally people around their cause, which has taken a great hit.”
The funeral service also honored Hashem Safieddine, who effectively led Hezbollah for a week after Mr. Nasrallah’s death before he, too, was killed by Israel.
Many in attendance had traveled from Iran, Iraq and Yemen, offering a reminder of Mr. Nasrallah’s outsize role uniting Shiites across the region against Israel. Others from Lebanon had spent the night in the stadium, braving the bitter cold to secure a seat for the service.
“He meant everything to me,” said Rania Rammal, an accountant whose home in southern Lebanon was destroyed during Hezbollah’s nearly 14-month war with Israel. “My house is gone, but I wish I was gone instead of Nasrallah,” she added.
Notably absent from the ceremony: Mr. Aoun and the newly appointed prime minister, Nawaf Salam. Both sent representatives in their place — a move that highlighted their efforts to distance themselves from Hezbollah as they push for financial support from the West.
Israel projected its own show of force on Sunday, with Israeli fighter jets roaring over Beirut and airstrikes hitting several areas in eastern and southern Lebanon, targeting what Israeli officials described as Hezbollah military activity.
Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said the jets were meant to send a “clear message” that “anyone who threatens to destroy Israel and attacks Israel — this will be their end.”
The war between Hezbollah and Israel broke out in October 2023 after the Lebanese militia started firing on Israeli military positions in solidarity with its Palestinian ally, Hamas, in Gaza.
The conflict sharply escalated last September, with Israeli forces invading parts of southern Lebanon and launching an intense bombardment across the country that lasted about two months before the cease-fire was reached.
Within Lebanon, Hezbollah was widely seen as having suffered a stinging defeat in the war.
“Hezbollah forced the whole country into this war but wasn’t powerful enough to put up a fight,” said Ali Mraay, 34, a delivery driver in Beirut. “The south — the most beautiful part of the country — is destroyed because of Hezbollah. Everyone who died in the war, it’s because of this war by Hezbollah.”
The group now faces difficult questions from its supporters about whether it can provide the billions of dollars needed to rebuild towns and villages flattened in the war.
That support will be critical to reviving the group’s support among followers whose faith in Hezbollah has been tested by this war. After its last war with Israel, in 2006, Hezbollah responded immediately with cash handouts bankrolled by Iran. But its response has been slower this time around.
The group’s main land bridge for receiving cash from Iran through Syria was severed after the Assad dictatorship — an important ally to Iran and Hezbollah — was toppled by rebels in December.
The loss of Mr. Nasrallah has also been devastating to the group’s public image. Mr. Nasrallah took charge when the group was a guerrilla force fighting the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, which ended in 2000, and led the organization as it formally entered Lebanese politics.
He served many roles in the lives of Hezbollah members, acting as a religious leader, political strategist and commander in chief. His charm — a rarity among leaders in the region — was also key to unifying Hezbollah’s followers. The group’s current leader, Mr. Qassem, does not share Mr. Nasrallah’s stature or charisma.
Still, experts warn against writing Hezbollah off.
The continued presence of Israeli forces in southern Lebanon breathes new life into Hezbollah’s raison d’être: armed resistance against Israeli occupation.
And the group still maintains an arsenal which — in the context of its brewing showdown with the new government — has many in Lebanon on edge.
Hezbollah, which the United States designated as a terrorist organization in 1997, has previously shown its willingness to sacrifice anyone — including Lebanese politicians and journalists — who challenge its hold on power.
“They lost their battle with Israel. But now there is a concern about what they will do next,” Sami Nader, the director of the Political Sciences Institute at Saint Joseph University of Beirut, said, referring to Hezbollah. “If they can’t use their arms against Israel, will they use them against those inside Lebanon? This is the concern.”
Dayana Iwaza and Jacob Roubai contributed reporting.
