Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said the group would not allow itself to be disarmed on Saturday as he addressed supporters marking one year since the killing by Israel of his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut on September 27, 2024.
Despite a November ceasefire that ended over a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, the latter has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon and still has troops positioned at five border points inside Lebanon.
Hezbollah is under intense pressure to hand over its weapons, with the Lebanese army having drawn up a plan to disarm it, beginning in the south.
"We will never abandon our weapons, nor will we relinquish them," Qassem told the tens of thousands of supporters gathered at the tomb of the former chief on Saturday.
"We are ready for martyrdom," he added.
Hezbollah is commemorating the killings of Nasrallah and second-in-command Hashem Safieddine in a series of events which began on Thursday with the projection of their images onto the iconic Raouche sea rock in Beirut, despite government opposition and the party's lack of official authorization.
That opposition in turn drew criticism of the government from Hezbollah supporters.
In a statement on Saturday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun expressed his hope that "this painful anniversary will serve as a rallying point, reinforcing the belief that Lebanon's salvation lies in having one unified state, one army and constitutional institutions that protect sovereignty and uphold dignity.”
