Hezbollah Pressures its Supporters to Attend Nasrallah Funeral

People visit the site where late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by the Israeli airstrike on 27 September 2024 in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, in the Dahieh suburb, southern Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2025. (EPA)
People visit the site where late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by the Israeli airstrike on 27 September 2024 in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, in the Dahieh suburb, southern Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2025. (EPA)
TT
20

Hezbollah Pressures its Supporters to Attend Nasrallah Funeral

People visit the site where late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by the Israeli airstrike on 27 September 2024 in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, in the Dahieh suburb, southern Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2025. (EPA)
People visit the site where late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by the Israeli airstrike on 27 September 2024 in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, in the Dahieh suburb, southern Beirut, Lebanon, 21 February 2025. (EPA)

Hezbollah has for over a month been preparing to hold a mass funeral for its slain leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, who were killed by Israel in 2024 in its last war with the Iran-backed party.

Hezbollah is aiming to use the funeral into a sort of referendum over its popularity and demonstrate that its supporters continue to stand by it after its heavy losses in the war and after it has been weakened politically in Lebanon.

The party has been calling on supporters in Lebanon and abroad to show up en masse to the funeral that will be held on Sunday.

The government had recently suspended flights from Iran to Beirut due to security concerns, which had left Hezbollah scrambling to find alternative routes to fly its supporters from Iran to Lebanon.

The Iranians have turned to Baghdad and flights from the Iraqi capital to Beirut have been fully booked for days.

Informed sources said Iran’s proxies in Iraq have worked on sending droves of people to the funeral.

Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport has been the scene of a number of disputes between travelers over the insistence of funeral attendees to brandish Nasrallah posters and chant slogans in support of the party.

Nasrallah’s son Mohammed Mehdi has also joined efforts to rally supporters. In an instagram post, he accused “enemies of working against us to prevent the funeral from happening.”

He called on those who can attend to do so and to ignore concerns about traffic and the poor weather.

Meanwhile, security agencies are on alert for any clashes that may erupt on the day of the funeral between Hezbollah supporters and its opponents.

President Joseph Aoun chaired on Friday a security meeting attended by the ministers of defense and interior and heads of security agencies to discuss the measures in place for the funeral.

A security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the agencies are on their highest alert level throughout the country in anticipation of the funeral.

All precautions and plans are in place to confront any development, it added.

The funeral will likely leave Lebanon at a standstill as Hezbollah supporters flock to Beirut from across the country. Authorities have already suspended flights from Beirut airport on Sunday between 12 and 4 pm.

Hezbollah officials have called on the people to attend the funeral, revealing that travelers and officials from 79 countries are confirmed to be there.

People line up to check in for a flight to Beirut at the Baghdad International Airport on February 20, 2025. (AFP)

Politically-motivated

Political activist and editor-in-chief of Janoubia website Ali al-Amine said the intense rallying of supporters for the funeral is purely politically-motivated and has nothing to do with the burials.

Hezbollah is using every means at its disposal to rally and pressure supporters to attend the event. Anyone failing to show up will be viewed as a traitor to its cause and will face criticism, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Hezbollah is trying to impose a “new internal equation” to stand against the wave of change that has swept the country following the party’s defeat in the war, Aoun’s election and the formation of a new government that does not include Hezbollah ministers.

The party wants to act against the state building project, Amine warned.

Hezbollah is working on rallying its Shiite popular base because it believes it offers it “protection and immunity,” he went on to say.

Inciting Shiite sectarian sentiments and spending millions of dollars on Nasrallah’s funeral is an attempt to “sanctify” him and turn his burial site into a shrine similar to the Shiite ones in Iraq, Syria and Iran, he said.

Officials from the Iran-backed Houthi militias are also attending the funeral and Information Minister in Yemen’s legitimate government Moammar al-Eryani has called on Lebanese authorities to arrest them on charges of war crimes and human rights violations.

Former Minister Dr. Rashid Derbas told Asharq Al-Awsat that Beirut cannot arrest them without a warrant, which it does not have.



UN Food Agency Says Israeli Tanks, Snipers Opened Fire on a Crowd Seeking Aid in Gaza

Mourners attend the funeral of their relatives killed in an Israeli bombardment, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Monday, July 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners attend the funeral of their relatives killed in an Israeli bombardment, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Monday, July 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
TT
20

UN Food Agency Says Israeli Tanks, Snipers Opened Fire on a Crowd Seeking Aid in Gaza

Mourners attend the funeral of their relatives killed in an Israeli bombardment, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Monday, July 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners attend the funeral of their relatives killed in an Israeli bombardment, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Monday, July 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The UN food agency accused Israel of using tanks, snipers and other weapons to fire on a crowd of Palestinians seeking food aid, in what the territory's Health Ministry said was one of the deadliest days for aid-seekers in over 21 months of war.

The World Food Program in a statement Sunday condemned the violence that erupted in northern Gaza as Palestinians tried to reach a convoy of trucks carrying food. The Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 80 people were killed in the incident. The Israeli military has said it fired warning shots “to remove an immediate threat,” but has questioned the death toll reported by the Palestinians.

The accusation by a major aid agency that has had generally good working relations with Israel builds on descriptions by witnesses and others, who also said Israel opened fire on the crowd, The AP news reported.

The bloodshed surrounding aid access highlights the increasingly precarious situation for people in Gaza who have been desperately seeking out food and other assistance, as the war that has roiled the region shows no signs of ending. Israel and Hamas are still engaged in ceasefire talks, but there appears to be no breakthrough and it's not clear whether any truce would bring the war to a lasting halt.

As the talks proceed, the death toll in the war-ravaged territory has climbed to more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians but the ministry says more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas government, but the UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.

WFP condemns violence at food distribution points In northern Gaza on Sunday, the Health Ministry, witnesses and a UN official said Israeli forces opened fire toward crowds who tried to get food from a 25-truck convoy that had entered the hard-hit area.

The WFP statement, which said the crowd surrounding its convoy “came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire,” backs up those claims. The statement did not specify a death toll, saying only the incident resulted in the loss of “countless lives.”

“These people were simply trying to access food to feed themselves and their families on the brink of starvation,” it said, adding that the incident occurred despite assurances from Israeli authorities that aid delivery would improve. Part of those assurances, it said, was that armed forces would not be present nor engage along aid routes.

“Shootings near humanitarian missions, convoys and food distributions must stop immediately.”

Israel has not allowed international media to enter Gaza throughout the war, and the competing claims could not be independently verified.