BEIRUT — Lebanon’s paramilitary Hezbollah group is preparing for a massive funeral for slain leader Hassan Nasrallah this weekend, more than five months after his killing in an Israeli strike.
Nasrallah, who headed the Shiite Hezbollah group from 1992 until his death, was killed in a major Israeli strike in Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut, on Sept. 27, 2024. At the time, Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel had been engaged in cross-border hostilities since October 2023 that escalated into a full-blown war in September.
The killing of Nasrallah and several other Hezbollah leaders and commanders dealt a heavy blow to the group, whose influence waned after a US-brokered ceasefire entered into force in November and Western-backed Joseph Aoun was elected president in January.
Nasrallah’s funeral will be held on Sunday, Feb. 23, at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium in the Bir Hassan neighborhood in southern Beirut.
Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem announced in a televised speech Feb. 2 that the public funeral had been delayed due to the “critical circumstances” facing the country at the time of his death.
Logistics
The Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, the country’s largest with a capacity of 49,500 seats, has been the scene of intense preparations for Sunday’s funeral.
Photos of Nasrallah and the yellow flag of Hezbollah have been raised in the stadium and on the roads leading to it and six giant screens and loudspeakers have been installed, ceremony organizer Ali Daher revealed to Al-Akhbar, a local paper close to Hezbollah, last week.
٥٠ الف دولار فقط للشاشات الكبيرة !
يا ريت حزب الله قام بصيانة وتحويل المدينة الرياضية إلى مركز إيواء في
الحرب بدل ترك اهل الضاحية والجنوب ينامون على الطرقات 🇱🇧#حسن_نصرالله pic.twitter.com/YFfCLjbHfs— Zena basileMTV (@BasileZena) February 21, 2025
Daher said the stadium’s parking area is expected to fill up with another 30,000 people on the day of the funeral.
Hussein Fadlallah, the head of the organizing committee for Nasrallah’s funeral ceremony, said in a statement on Friday that a team of paramedics including 1,400 nurses and 100 doctors will be on site on Sunday to ensure the safety of the attendees, along with 54 mobile emergency rooms and 32 fire trucks.
The funeral will also honor Hashem Safieddine, who was designated to succeed Nasrallah as secretary general of Hezbollah before he was also killed in an Israeli strike in Dahiyeh on Oct. 4.
The funeral will begin at 1 p.m. local time and will last about 65 minutes, Daher told a press conference Feb. 12. Qassem will then deliver a eulogy, followed by the funeral prayer. The funerary procession will then depart from the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium to the burial sites.
Nasrallah will be buried in an area near the airport road in Dahiyeh, while Safieddine will be laid to rest in his home town of Deir Qanoun al-Nahr in southern Lebanon.
Work has been underway since early this month to build a mausoleum for Nasrallah in the Bourj al-Barajneh neighborhood of Dahiyeh, where he will be buried.
شہید سید حسن نصراللہ کے مقبرے کی تعمیر کی تیاریوں کی تصاویر pic.twitter.com/K6cKhvZ90w
— IRAN(اردو) (@IR_Urdu) February 10, 2025
ًWho will attend?
In his Friday statements, Fadlallah said the ceremony will be broadcast live in Iran, Turkey, Tunisia, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen.
He said the funeral would be “an exceptional event that the world will not forget,” saying it will honor the “sacrifices” that Nasrallah and Sadieddine have offered to the “resistance.”
The massive crowds expected to attend the funeral procession will include officials and representatives of dozens of countries. Hezbollah said delegations from 79 countries will be present at the ceremony.
Iran, the main backer of Hezbollah, is expected to send officials. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters on Monday that Iran will take part in the funeral “at a high level.” He did not specify who will be attending.
Memorial ceremonies in honor of Nasrallah and Safieddine will also be held in holy shrines, religious centers, prayer halls and central mosques throughout Iran, including the Imam Khomeini prayer hall in Tehran on Sunday.
Thousands of Iraqis are expected to attend the funeral on Sunday. Flights from Baghdad to Beirut were fully booked by midweek, prompting Iraqi Airlines to increase its flights to the Lebanese capital. Iraqi Transport Ministry spokesperson Maytham Al-Safi told the Iraqi Shafaq News outlet on Wednesday that the airline will increase its service two flights daily to Beirut starting Thursday ahead of the funeral to bring 6,000 Iraqi passengers to Beirut this week.
An official Iraqi delegation will attend the funeral in Beirut, according to local Iraqi news outlets, but no names have been revealed. Representatives of Iraq’s pro-Iranian factions are also expected to participate in the procession.
The Iraqi cities of Karbala and Kadhimiya, both home to Shiite shrines, will host memorial ceremonies for Nasrallah on Sunday.
Yemen’s Houthi rebel group, a Hezbollah ally and Iran’s proxy in the region, said it would also attend the funeral. A delegation headed by the Grand Mufti of Yemen and President of the Yemeni Scholars Association Shamsuddin Sharafuddin headed to Beirut on Friday to participate in Sunday’s funeral, according to the Yemeni Saba news agency.
Earlier on Wednesday, the information minister in Yemen’s internationally recognized government, Moammar al-Eryani, called on the Lebanese government to arrest the Houthi leaders who attend Nasrallah’s funeral. In a post on X, Eryani said Lebanese authorities must arrest the Houthi leaders who are involved in “war crimes” and hand them over to the Yemeni government.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah has extended invitations to several officials and party and religious leaders, including President Joseph Aoun, former premier Saad Hariri and Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi. So far, only the Progressive Socialist Party confirmed its attendance.
Aoun will send a representative to attend, his adviser Rafik Shelala confirmed to the Lebanese L’Orient-Le Jour newspaper.
Ali Fayad, a member of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc, told the local LBCI station on Friday that he has learned that Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, will represent Aoun at the funeral.
Security measures
In anticipation of the large crowds, Lebanese authorities announced on Monday the temporary closure of Beirut’s international airport at noon for four hours on the day of the funeral. Air France and Emirates airlines had already cancelled their flights to Beirut for the day.
The US Embassy issued an advisory last week, urging its citizens to avoid the Bir Hassan and airport areas on Sunday. The French Consulate in Lebanon also issued a warning to its citizens in the country, calling on them to be “very vigilant” this Sunday and avoid the airport road.
On Friday, the Lebanese military issued a statement reading that all licenses for the use of drones from Saturday to Sunday will be suspended.
Aoun held a security meeting in Baabda on Friday, gathering the defense and interior ministers and the acting army commander to discuss the security measures to be taken on Sunday. The funeral site and surrounding area are expected to see a heavy deployment of security forces.
In his Friday statements, Fadlallah, the head of the funeral’s organizing committee, also urged Hezbollah supporters to refrain from firing in the air, a common practice during funerals and other events.