Several businesses to shutter on Sunday for Nasrallah funeral

BEIRUT — The Badaro neighborhood Merchants Committee released a statement on Saturday asked owners of commercial establishments, shops, and restaurants to remain closed until 4 p.m. the next day on the occasion of the joint funeral of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his presumed successor Hashem Safieddine.

According to the committee, the aim is to "express our solidarity with our compatriots, to make this tragic event a national and unifying moment for all of Lebanon, and to show our deep compassion for the families of all the martyrs." The neighborhood of Badaro is adjacent Chiyah, a district in Beirut's southern suburbs, which was heavily bombarded by Israel during the all-out war against Hezbollah in the fall.

The Bekaa Butchers Union also called for the closure of all slaughterhouses and butcheries in the Baalbeck-Hermel region on Sunday, to allow "broad participation in the funerals of martyrs" Nasrallah and Safieddine. In a statement shared by the state-run National News Agency (NNA), the union emphasizes that this initiative is "an act of renewing allegiance to the line of resistance."

The Bakery and Ovens Union of Beirut and Mount Lebanon also announced, in a statement reported on by NNA, the closure of bakeries in the southern suburb of the capital on Sunday "to allow employees and owners to attend the funerals." The text specifies that "bakeries will resume operations as soon as the ceremonies are over." The president of the Union of Bakery Associations of Lebanon, Nasser Sarour, called on all citizens to participate.

On Sept. 27, Israel dropped dozens of 2,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on Beirut's densely populated southern suburbs to kill Nasrallah, who was in the party's underground command center. A U.S. Defense Department official told Washington Post that he had never seen so many bombs used against a single target as in the Nasrallah strike. At least four buildings were completely leveled and an unknown number of civilians killed. A week later, Israel did the same to kill his supposed successor and cousin Hashem Safieddine.

The funeral ceremony, which hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend, is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday at Beirut Sports City Stadium in the Ghobeiri neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs and will be followed by a funeral procession leading from the arena to the place in Burj al-Barajneh where the iconic Hezbollah leader will be laid to rest.