Hezbollah again starts holding public funerals for its fallen fighters

Hezbollah held a public funeral in a southern village on Friday for five of its fighters killed during the fighting with Israel. It was the first time the Lebanese militant group held a public funeral since after the war intensified in late September.

“My son is in heaven,” said Zeinab al-Haj holding a bag of roses to toss them on the coffin of her son Ali Hijazi during the ceremony in the village of Maarakeh. Hijazi died of wounds suffered in an airstrike last week.

Hezbollah’s last public funeral was held on Sept. 27, the same day the group’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a southern Beirut’s suburb.

“We are people who are proud of their martyrs,” said Hezbollah’s media chief in south Lebanon Salman Harb. “Our martyrs are the symbol of our victory by all means.”

After a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on Wednesday, the group began announcing again its fallen fighters. More funerals are expected in the coming days including the funeral of three more fighters in Maarakeh on Saturday.

Hezbollah had announced the death of nearly 500 fighters before Sept. 23, when the war intensified. Since late September, Hezbollah is believed to have lost hundreds of fighters whose funerals will be held whenever their bodies are recovered.

Hezbollah is also expected to hold a funeral for Nasrallah and other top officials, including his successor Hashem Safieddine who was killed in an airstrike in early October.