[IsraelTimes] In address to packed Beirut stadium from hidden location, terror leader’s successor vows to uphold his legacy, threatens Israel and US, as IDF hits Hezbollah targets across Lebanon
Tens of thousands of black-clad mourners vowed support for the Hezbollah terror group Sunday at the Beirut funeral of slain leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
, after the group was dealt major blows in its last round of hostilities with Israel.
Women wailed as a truck carrying the coffins of Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine — Nasrallah’s chosen successor, killed in another Israeli Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM! ...
before his new position was ever publicly announced — slowly moved through the crowd, topped with two black turbans and draped in Hezbollah’s yellow flag.
After his death, Nasrallah was buried temporarily next to his son, Hadi, who died fighting for Hezbollah in 1997. His official funeral was delayed to allow time for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Leb
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
under the terms of the US-backed ceasefire.
The September 27 killing of Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than three decades, in a massive Israeli strike, dealt a heavy blow to the Iran-backed group.
As the funeral began at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, Lebanon’s biggest sports arena, Israeli warplanes flew at a low altitude over Beirut.
The crowd then chanted: "Death to Israel, death to America, we respond to your call, Nasrallah."
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the overflight was a "clear message" to anyone who threatens Israel.
"Israeli Air Force aircraft currently flying over Beirut, over the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, convey a clear message: Whoever threatens to destroy Israel and attack Israel — it will be their end," he said in a statement.
"You will specialize in funerals, and we will specialize in victories," Katz added.
Israel also carried out several airstrikes in Lebanon on Sunday, saying they targeted Hezbollah sites containing rocket launchers and other weapons threatening Israeli civilians.
The terror group began assaulting northern Israel on October 8, 2023, a day after fellow terror group Hamas
 ..always the voice of sweet reason...
’s devastating attack on southern Israel. A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was implemented in late November after over a year of skirmishes that ended with two months of all-out war. Hezbollah’s leadership and much of its offensive capabilities were devastated in the latter period.
While the ceasefire has largely seen hostilities halted and the IDF recently withdrew from most of the territory it was holding in south Lebanon, Israeli forces remain in five strategic locations within Lebanese territory.
NAIM QASSEM VOWS TO UPHOLD NASRALLAH’S LEGACY
Nasrallah was being buried Sunday in a shrine constructed near the stadium. Safieddine is set to be buried on Monday in southern Lebanon.
In a televised address to the funeral ceremony, broadcast from an undisclosed location, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem
... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies...
said the terror group would keep following his "path" and rejected any control of "tyrant America" over Lebanon.
"The resistance is not over, the resistance is still present and ready" to face Israel, he said.
"We will uphold trust and walk on this path, we will uphold your will," Qassem said, referring to Nasrallah, adding: "You are still with us, your... path and struggle live within us" and "I am loyal to the legacy."
Telling his followers that Hezbollah remains "strong," Qassem said: "We will not submit and we will not accept the continuation of our killing and occupation while we watch."
He said Hezbollah considered Israel’s five positions an occupation and was relying on the Lebanese government to secure a full withdrawal through diplomacy.
"We choose to fire when we see fit and are patient when we see fit," he said.
"Know this Americans, if... you try to pressure officials and Lebanon, you will not be able to achieve your goals," he added, asserting that "officials in Lebanon know the balance of powers."
"Do not interpret our patience and wisdom in assessing priorities as weakness," he warned.
According to reports, a number of Hezbollah operatives injured in Israel’s exploding pager operation that caused severe damage to the terror group were in attendance at the funeral.
Sam Heller of the Century Foundation think tank said it was "important for the group to demonstrate that it remains a major social and political force, despite some of the setbacks it’s been dealt."
As mourners raised their fists in the air and chanted "We are at your service, Nasrallah" and "We are loyal to the promise, Nasrallah," the slain leader’s previous speeches were blasted on loudspeakers.
Men, women and kiddies walked in the biting cold to reach the site of the ceremony, which was delayed for months over security concerns.
CROWD SIZE ESTIMATES VARY
Since Saturday, roads into Beirut have been clogged with carloads of supporters traveling in from Hezbollah’s strongholds in south Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley.
AFP correspondents reported Sunday that the stadium, which organizers said could accommodate roughly 78,000 people, was fully packed. A previous AFP report put the stadium’s capacity at around 50,000, but noted that organizers had installed extra seating and overflow room.
Meanwhile,
...back at the laboratory the smoke and fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight...
a Lebanese official who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity estimated the crowd size at 450,000.
Hezbollah’s al-Manar television said the group deployed 25,000 stewards for crowd control and 4,000 more to supervise the event.
A Lebanese security source said 4,000 troops and security personnel were also deployed to the area.
LEBANESE PRESIDENT A NO-SHOW
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun asked parliament speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
...perennial Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians...
, a Hezbollah ally, to represent him at the ceremony, while Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam was represented by a minister.
Hezbollah’s weakening in the war is widely seen as having contributed to the election of Aoun, who named Salam as his premier last month after two years of leadership vacuum.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were in attendance, with representatives of Iraq’s main pro-Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
factions and a delegation of Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
’s Iran-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth . Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
group also expected.
A single flight from Tehran was given permission to land before dawn on Sunday, though service from Iran has been suspended over the threat of Israeli strikes against attempts to smuggle weapons or other goods to Hezbollah.
"It is only one flight, carrying official delegations from Tehran to participate in the funeral," airport chief Fadi al-Hassan told AFP.
Araghchi, in a speech from Beirut, described the slain leaders as "two heroes of the resistance" and vowed that "the path of resistance will continue."
Before the funeral, Aragchi and other Iranian officials met Aoun. According to a statement from Aoun’s office, he told the Iranian delegation that Lebanon was "tired of the war of others" and that it had "paid a heavy price for the Paleostinian cause."
At the meeting, Ghalibaf told Aoun that Iran is willing to help Lebanon with its reconstruction efforts following the conflict, according to a post from the Lebanese president’s official X account.
Aoun told the Iranian official that Lebanon’s leadership supports the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
reconstruction plan discussed during Friday’s Arab summit in Riyadh, which laid out a path towards a two-state solution, in opposition to Trump’s plan for the mass relocation of Gazooks outside the enclave.
ISRAEL RELEASES NEW FOOTAGE OF KILLING
Amid the funeral fanfare, Israel released new footage of the massive September 27 airstrike that killed Nasrallah and, according to Israel, more than 20 Hezbollah commanders, including Ali Karaki, the commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front.
Israeli Air Force fighter jets dropped 82 heavy bombs on the terror group’s main underground headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh, bringing down several buildings. |
...Arabic term meaning 
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...