Hezbollah Secretary General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, announced in a televised speech on Sunday, February 2, that a funeral procession of the resistance group’s late Secretary General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, alongside late head of executive council, Hashem Safieddine, will be held on February 23, under the banner “We shall keep the covenant.”
Hezbollah’s new leader explained that the assassination of Nasrallah and Safieddine between late September and early October 2024, took place during critical circumstances that precluded an immediate funeral, referring to Israel’s aggression on Lebanon at that time.
He also clarified that the burial of Nasrallah will take place in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, while the burial of Safieddine will be held in his hometown of Deir Qanoun al-Nahr, in southern Lebanon.
Sheikh Naim Qassim emphasized that the funeral “will serve as a renewed pledge to uphold the path of resistance,” affirming that Hezbollah “will persist, unwavering in its path and beliefs”. Hezbollah’s leader also stressed that “foreign intervention leads to subservience, humiliation, and the solidification of the Israeli occupation.”
Hezbollah urges the Lebanese state to cease Israel’s continued violations through mediators
Addressing the current situation in his country, Sheikh Naim Qassem denounced Israel’s continued presence in southern Lebanon which resulted from the US-brokered ceasefire extension until February 18.
Qassem urged the Lebanese state to bear full responsibility to “pressure Israel” through international mediators to “cease its violations and aggressions” on Lebanon”. Hezbollah’s Secretary General further called on his government to exert pressure on the US administration “which directs Israeli policies and is implicated in all of Israel’s crimes, including every aggression against Lebanon, Palestine, and the region, but will consider itself bound by an agreement that it sponsored.”
Lebanon files a complaint against Israel’s violations to UN Security Council
On Tuesday, February 4, the Lebanese permanent mission in New York filed a complaint to the United Nations Security Council against Israel for its repeated violations of Resolution 1701 and the ceasefire agreement reached with Hezbollah last November.
The complaint contained a detailed explanation of Israeli violations in southern Lebanon, including ground incursions and air assaults carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), in addition to destruction of homes and residential neighborhoods. IOF’s abduction of Lebanese citizens and soldiers, and attacks on civilians returning to their border villages were also highlighted in the complaint.
The mission urged the UN Security Council and sponsors of the ceasefire deal to take “a firm and clear position against Israel’s violations” and work to strengthen the Lebanese army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
