Beirut’s Sports City begins to fill up ahead of the funeral of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Feb. 23, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/OLJ)
Left abandoned for nearly five years, the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium has suddenly found a new purpose. The nearly 70-year-old stadium, the largest of its kind in the country, is hard to miss when taking the road through south Beirut toward the airport. Its outer walls are adorned with large portraits of Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safiedinne, for whom the site will host a funeral ceremony on Sunday, nearly five months after the towering figure and his short-lived successor were both assassinated in massive bombing attacks on the capital during the party's all-out war with Israel in fall 2024.
‘Special tour reserved for the press’
At the stadium entrance, a small group of shabeb [young men] equipped with walkie-talkies lift the barrier blocking access to the stands. "Do you have authorization?" one of them asks, peering at the inquirers with one good eye and one glass eye. “Come back Saturday, there will be a special tour reserved for the press,” he says.
In the lead-up to the historical event, some have managed to get past this barrier and take pictures of the extensive preparations. “There will be a main structure in the middle of the stadium with two large screens where the coffins will be placed after touring the arena," one of the funeral organizers told the Hezbollah news channel, al-Manar. "The field will be filled with 23,000 chairs and the stands can hold up to 55,000 people."
Nearly 80,000 people will be in attendance, having received one of the thousands of glossy invitation cards, which were sent out to over 70 countries, Hezbollah detailed in a statement.
“We invite you to participate in the funerals of the two sayyeds martyrs," it reads. "The ceremony will start at 1 p.m. We will welcome official persons at 12:30 p.m.” Among the notable guests are many Lebanese political figures, including President Joseph Aoun “who will not personally attend the event but will be represented,” sources from the presidential palace in Baabda stated.
An 'uncountable' number of participants
How will such a massive crowd be accommodated? And at such a tense time, as Israel continues its flagrant violations of the cease-fire deal it signed with Hezbollah in late November. An extensive security apparatus is in place, including official state security and the army.
“The army and Internal Security Forces will of course be deployed in Beirut and various regions to secure all gathering points,” a military source told L'Orient-Le Jour, indicating that security measures have been “enhanced” following protests on the airport road as many in Hezbollah's popular base reacted to the government banning Iranian planes from landing in the country.
“We expect several hundred thousand people to participate in total. But this number is ‘uncountable,' as we don’t know how many will come from the southern suburbs of Beirut or other Shiite regions of the country,” the source added.
A slew of roadways will be closed off during the commemoration, beyond those included in the funeral procession which will pass through many neighborhoods in the southern suburbs following the ceremony.
“We will publish the identities of the roads that will be closed by the end of the week,” a second security source specified. “There will obviously be the airport road, the one passing by the Sports City Stadium, as well as many adjacent streets because many crowds are likely to converge on the burial site.”
A '44 million dollar' mausoleum?
Another video released by al-Manar shows work underway night and day, parallel to those laboring at the stadium, to erect a mausoleum honoring Nasrallah on a small plot of land in the Bourj al-Barajneh neighborhood of the southern suburbs, a little more than a kilometer north of the Beirut International Airport entrance (which has announced its closure from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday). He will be buried there alone after the ceremony, while Safieddine will be buried the next day in his hometown of Deir Qanoun al-Nahr, in the South.
Rumor has it that the land on which Nasrallah will be buried was purchased by Hezbollah, from its former owner, for the modest sum of 44 million dollars, political analyst Joseph Abou Fadel recently stated on MTV. This figure could not be confirmed, although there are also reports circulating that the party will be selling "souvenirs" on the sidelines of the event to help finance the monumental ceremony.
The funeral march, during which Nasrallah's coffin will be transported over 2.6 kilometers, represents “the riskiest stage,” according to the aforementioned security source “due to crowd movements or potential provocations by the Israeli enemy.”
For this reason, a sizeable team of paramedics and first responders will be on-site to address any potential incidents. “We will be positioned around the stadium, along the march route and at different gathering points, in Beirut, Saida, Sour, and Nabatieh,” said Mahmoud Karaki, the press manager of the Islamic Health Authority’s Civil Defense, affiliated with Hezbollah. “There will be a total of more than 1,500 rescuers and nurses, including over 70 specialized doctors spread across the 50 emergency centers we will set up in Beirut,” he elaborated, specifying that “50 ambulances and about 20 fire trucks” will be distributed among different intervention teams ready should they be needed.
