Tens of thousands of people bid farewell to Hezbollah’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah at a mass funeral in Beirut on Sunday, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a stunning blow to the Iranian-backed group.

Carrying pictures of Nasrallah and Hezbollah flags, supporters from Lebanon and other countries in the region filled the 55,000-seat Camille Chamoun Sports City stadium in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, Reuters reported.

The killing of Nasrallah, who led the Shi’ite Muslim group through decades of conflict with Israel and oversaw its transformation into a military force with regional sway, was one of the opening salvos in an Israeli escalation that badly weakened Hezbollah.

But the group’s current leader, Naim Qassem, whose remote address to the mourners was broadcast on screens from an undisclosed location, said Hezbollah remained “strong”.

“We will not submit and we will not accept the continuation of our killing and occupation while we watch,” Qassem said.

Though Israel’s military has largely withdrawn from southern Lebanon, its air force is still striking on what it says are Hezbollah positions across Lebanon and troops still hold five hilltop positions along the border.

Israeli warplanes carried out strikes in Lebanon’s south and east on Sunday morning and flew low over Beirut twice during the funeral, prompting shouts of “Death to Israel” from the crowds.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said in a post on X that the planes flying “above Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral are conveying a clear message: whoever threatens to destroy Israel and attacks Israel – that will be the end of him. You will specialize in funerals – and we will specialize in victories.”

Qassem 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.

‘CLINGING ON’

Among those in attendance were Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, an Iraqi delegation including Shi’ite politicians and militia commanders, and a delegation from Yemen’s Houthis.

The mass funeral is aimed at showing strength after Hezbollah emerged battered from last year’s war with Israel, which killed most of its leadership and thousands of fighters, and wreaked destruction on south Lebanon.

Its weakened stature has been reflected in Lebanon’s post-war politics, with the group unable to impose its will in the formation of a new government and language legitimising its arsenal omitted from the new cabinet’s policy statement.

The impact on Hezbollah was compounded by the ousting of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria, severing a key supply route.

“We may have lost a great deal as a man, but we have not lost the value of the resistance because the resistance is clinging on,” said Hassan Nasreddine, a Lebanese man headed to the ceremony from the south.

Before the funeral, Araqchi and other Iranian officials met Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, who was invited but did not attend the ceremony.

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 Palestinian cause”.

The conflict spiralled after Hezbollah opened fire in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

The funeral was also being held for Hashem Safieddine, who led Hezbollah for a week after Nasrallah’s death. He was killed in an Israeli strike before he had been publicly announced as Nasrallah’s successor.

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 Lebanon under the terms of a U.S.-backed ceasefire which ended last year’s war.

He is set to be buried on Sunday near the stadium. Safieddine is set to be buried on Monday in southern Lebanon.