In the crowd, a man holds a portrait of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in Israeli strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut in Sept. 2024, during the commemoration of his assassination, on Sept. 27, 2026, near the airport road in the suburbs of Beirut. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — Thousands of Hezbollah supporters gathered Sunday at the mausoleum of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah near the airport road in Beirut’s southern suburbs to commemorate the deaths of Nasrallah and his successor, Hashem Safieddine.
The two men were killed in successive massive Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs during the war between Hezbollah and Israel, on Sept. 27, 2024, and Oct. 4, 2024, respectively. The strikes came just days after Israel escalated the conflict on Sept. 23, nearly a year after Hezbollah opened its “support front” on Oct. 8, 2023. The war severely weakened the group and destroyed part of its arsenal. After a cease-fire in November 2024, Lebanon drafted a plan to disarm Hezbollah. But the party, which refuses to surrender its weapons, once again drew Lebanon into war by launching attacks on Israel in early March in support of Iran. The war has claimed more than 4,300 lives, according to the Health Ministry, while the Israeli army still occupies more than 600 square kilometers in southern Lebanon.
Among the crowd, a banner reading “We miss you” alongside an image of the former leader was displayed, according to photos taken by our photojournalist Mohammad Yassine, who was on site. Some participants waved the party’s yellow flags and the Lebanese flag, while others held portraits of Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine.
For the commemoration, Jaafari Mufti Ahmad Kabalan, a Hezbollah ally, shared what he called his “testament,” saying: “Lebanon has been entrusted to us, and the army and the resistance are its guarantee.” According to Kabalan, Hassan Nasrallah believed that the homeland was “neither a piece of land nor the drawing of a map,” but rested notably on political and social justice, a national decision and a shared future. He also said that “nothing was more important” in Nasrallah’s eyes than strengthening national defense and preventing the sectarianization of security, and that Nasrallah had warned against “foreign tutelage” and “internal fragmentation,” as well as turning Lebanon into a “farm state” subject to political bargaining.
Last year, the commemoration took place on Beirut’s waterfront, sparking a heated controversy. Portraits of the two men were projected onto Pigeon Rock despite a ban issued by Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud, who had authorized the gathering but prohibited any lights at the iconic site. The incident led to a standoff between Hezbollah and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. Salam then asked the relevant ministries — Interior, Justice and Defense — to “take appropriate measures” and “detain those responsible.”