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

Israeli Air Force fighter jets flew low over Beirut on Sunday afternoon as the funeral of slain Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah got underway, Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed in a statement.

"The IAF jets that are now circling in the skies over Beirut over Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral are conveying a clear message: Whoever threatens to destroy Israel and attacks Israel—that will be their end," Katz said.

"You will specialize in funerals—and we will specialize in victories," he added.

The IDF released photos of the flyover, as well as new aerial footage of the strike that killed Nasrallah, who is believed to have been suffocated when a bomb exploded his bunker in Beirut.

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.