Mourners carry the body of a Hezbollah fighter killed during the war with Israel before a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, April 20, 2026. (Photo: Stringer/Reuters)
SOUTH LEBANON — Hezbollah announced it will hold mass funerals in south Lebanon on Tuesday for 44 of its fighters killed during more than six weeks of war with Israel.
The burials come after Israel and Lebanon entered into a ten-day cease-fire on Friday announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Hezbollah has not provided the total number of fighters killed since Israel last month launched a massive wave of airstrikes and a ground invasion in Lebanon.
But on Tuesday it said it would bury 29 fighters in the town of Kfar Sir, returning "a group of blessed souls to the soil of the south."
It will also bury 15 fighters and one civilian in the village of Qlaileh, some of whom had been temporarily buried elsewhere until the cease-fire made a return south possible.
Shia Muslim rites provide for such temporary burials when circumstances prevent a proper funeral or the dead cannot be buried where they wished.
On Monday, AFP footage showed Hezbollah holding a funeral for another four fighters in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, with chants and gunfire heard from the crowd.
Israel has killed at least 2,387 people since the war broke out on March 2, according to the latest toll issued by the Lebanese Health Ministry. Among those killed are at least 274 women and 177 children. The Ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties.
Israel said last Wednesday that it had killed "more than 1,700" Hezbollah fighters during the war, a figure that has not been verified.
