Hundreds of thousands attend funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

People gather for the funeral ceremony of Lebanon’s Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine (Hassan Ammar/AP)

Hundreds of thousands of people packed into a stadium in Beirut on Sunday to attend the funeral of Hezbollah’s former leader, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital.

Hassan Nasrallah was killed when Israel’s air force dropped more than 80 bombs on the militant group’s main operations room.

His death was a major blow for the Iran-backed group that he had transformed into a potent force in the Middle East.

Nasrallah was the group’s leader for more than 30 years and one of its founders.

Mourners hold pictures of Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine (Bilal Hussein/AP)

He enjoyed wide influence among Iran-backed groups in the region and was widely respected in the so-called Iran-led axis of resistance that included Iraqi, Yemeni and Palestinian factions.

Sahar al-Attar, a mourner who travelled from Lebanon’s Bekaa valley for the funeral, said she still “cannot believe what happened”.

“We would have come even under bullets” to attend Nasrallah’s burial, she said. “It is an indescribable feeling.”

Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were among the officials who arrived at the Lebanese capital’s main sports stadium.

Lebanon’s parliament speaker and representatives of the president and prime minister were also in attendance.

Senior Hezbollah official Ali Daamoush told reporters on Saturday that about 800 personalities from 65 countries would be attending the funeral in addition to thousands of individuals and activists from around the world.

Hezbollah security members with their dogs in Beirut’s City Sportive stadium (Hussein Malla/AP)

“Come from every home, village and city so that we tell the enemy that this resistance will stay and is ready in the field,” Daamoush said, referring to Israel.

Nasrallah will be laid to rest later on Sunday in Beirut, while his cousin and successor, Hashem Safieddine, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb a few days later, will be laid to rest in his hometown in southern Lebanon.

They had temporarily been buried in secret locations. Hezbollah earlier this month announced plans for their official funerals.

Hezbollah has been calling on its supporters to attend the funeral in large numbers in what appears to be a move to show that the group remains powerful after suffering major blows during a 14-month war with Israel that left many of its senior political and military officials dead.

Another blow for Hezbollah was the fall in early December of the Assad family’s five-decade rule in Syria, which was a strong ally of the Lebanese group and a main route for the flow of weapons and money from Iran.

As part of the US-brokered ceasefire deal that ended the war with Israel on November 27, Hezbollah is not supposed to have an armed presence along the border with Israel.

Thousands have arrived for the funeral (Osamah Abdulrahman/AP)

Hezbollah’s rivals have been calling on the group to lay down its weapons all over Lebanon and become a political faction.

Hezbollah has prepared for the funeral by setting up the stadium to host tens of thousands of people while giant screens were placed along the airport road outside for people who will not get a space inside.

Tight security measures have been imposed, including the closure of major roads.

Lebanese army and police forces were placed on alert and the army has banned the use of drones in Beirut and its suburbs during the day.

Flights to and from Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport were to halt for four hours starting at noon.

Hours before the funeral was to start, the Israeli military launched a series of strikes in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army said in a statement that it had “conducted a precise intelligence-based strike on a military site containing rocket launchers and weapons in Lebanese territory”.

Hezbollah has given a title to the funeral: “We are committed to the covenant.”