Hezbollah scouts gather at Sports City to commemorate Nasrallah and Safieddine

BEIRUT — Hezbollah's Imad Mahdi Scouts held the commemoration of the assassination of the group's former Secretary-Generals Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine in the Sports City in Beirut on Sunday. The event also marks the 40th anniversary of Imad Mahdi's foundation.

The event, called the “Generations of Sayyed”, was attended by around 74,000 of people, according to our correspondent Muntasser Abdallah. In the event, a huge picture of Nasrallah was placed at the center of the field. According to our correspondent, people came from many southern villages in busses to the Sports city.

At the end of the commemoration, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem delivered a speech to the attendees, saying: “You are the bright future, the pioneers of integrity and justice, and you are the generations of Sayyed [Nasrallah] on the path of the leadership of [Iran's Supreme leader] Imam Khamenei ... Sayyed is the master of the nation’s martyrs who has cared for you to build the era of determination, resolve and hope. You have chosen the path of resistance, which we mean in its broadest and most comprehensive sense, is an educational, cultural, ethical and political choice."

On Saturday, the Internal Security Forces announced in a statement that traffic measures would be taken on Sunday for this occasion as a "large number of citizens are expected to attend and participate."

Nasrallah and Safieddine were killed in Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sep. 27, 2024 and Oct. 3, 2024, respectively. These strikes took place a few days after the escalation of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which started in October 2023. Nasrallah and Safieddine's funerals were held in February 2025 in the Sports City.

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On Sep. 25, Hezbollah organized Nasrallah and Safieddine's commemoration near Raouche Rock and illuminated the historic landmark with their images. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had taken a strong position after that as the Beirut governor had banned the illumination of the rock prior to the event. Hezbollah also held a commemorative ceremony on Sept. 27 in the southern suburbs of Beirut, during which Qassem reaffirmed, in a speech projected on screens, that his party "will not give up its arms" and that it stood "ready for any confrontation with the Israeli enemy."