Israeli airforce conducts fly-by over Beirut as thousands mourn Nasrallah

Nasrallah’s funeral, which took place nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September, saw tens of thousands gather at a stadium in Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburb of Dahiyeh.

Hezbollah’s current leader, Naim Qassem, did not attend the ceremony and instead addressed mourners remotely in a pre-recorded video message in which he said Hezbollah would not be cowed by Israel. 

The thousands in attendance waved Hezbollah and Iranian flags in the stadium and were seen cowering in video clips as Israeli planes flew overhead.

Several notable Western Hezbollah sympathisers including American social media activist Jackson Hinkle assembled in Beirut, to mourn Hezbollah’s former leader.

A Lebanese man who had traveled from Australia to attend the memorial service for the terror leader told the Guardian: “I can’t even express how I feel, it feels like my father or grandfather I died. Most of us still don’t believe he’s actually dead,”

The Israeli Air Force flyover took place as mourners chanted, "Death to Israel, death to America, we respond to your call, Nasrallah."

Ahead of the funeral, the Israeli military announced it had attacked several Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, targeting rocket launchers and other arms that it said posed an imminent threat to the territory of the Jewish state.

The military stressed that Hezbollah’s continued terrorist operations continue to violate the established ceasefire understandings between Jerusalem and Beirut and endanger the State of Israel and its citizens.