Thousands of Hezbollah supporters gathered Saturday at the tomb of slain leader Hassan Nasrallah to commemorate one year since his assassination by an Israeli airstrike, with the group’s chief vowing the Iran-backed group would never lay down its arms.
Waving Hezbollah’s yellow banners alongside Lebanese, Palestinian and Iranian flags, crowds flooded the mausoleum site near Beirut’s airport as partisan and religious songs blared from loudspeakers, AFP reported. The show of loyalty came despite the terror group being weakened by last year’s war with Israel, which culminated in Nasrallah’s death after more than three decades at the helm.
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem virtually addressed the rally with a speech that Lebanese media said was livestreamed from an undisclosed location, in which he once again declared that the Shi’ite group would resist any efforts to disarm.
“We will never abandon our weapons, nor will we relinquish them,” Qassem told the tens of thousands in attendance. “We are ready for martyrdom.”
His statements came after Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos said earlier this month that the military would begin implementing its plan to disarm the terror group, which also holds 15 seats in the Lebanese parliament.
As Hezbollah’s supporters marked the one-year anniversary of Nasrallah’s assassination, Lebanese media reported Israeli drones flying above the ceremony in Beirut’s southern suburbs. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the reported overflights.
Earlier this year, Israeli warplanes also flew at a low altitude over the Lebanese capital during Nasrallah’s funeral.
As part of the commemorations, the Hezbollah-linked al-Mayadeen broadcaster aired what it said was the final image of Nasrallah, taken inside the group’s “command operations room” in the days before he was killed.
The report said the picture was taken as Israel intensified a sweeping offensive against Hezbollah, beginning with the so-called pager attack, which exploded thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah and took 1,500 fighters out of action, and continuing with strikes that decimated the group’s senior command and infrastructure. That campaign culminated with Nasrallah’s death in his underground command center.
Also marking the anniversary of Nasrallah’s death, the IDF released new intelligence it said shed light on the terror chief’s final days.
According to the Military Intelligence Directorate, Nasrallah “remained in place without realizing that he was the next target for elimination,” even after Israel killed many of his top commanders.
“In the days before his elimination, Nasrallah tried to rebuild the organization’s capabilities and plan counterattacks, but each of them was quickly thwarted,” the IDF said.
It added that “precise intelligence” had been gathered over the years, which “enabled an exact hold on the location of his secret bunker, whose construction was made possible using Iranian technology and strict compartmentalization, even within the closest circles of the terror organization.”
These revelations come after Nasrallah’s son, Jawad, told Reuters on Friday that his father spent his final days consumed by anger over Israel’s pager attack.
On the evening of September 27, 2024, Israeli fighter jets dropped 83 bunker-busting bombs on Hezbollah’s main underground complex in Beirut, killing Nasrallah and other senior officials. Several buildings were also destroyed in the strike.
Nasrallah’s burial was delayed for months due to the ongoing fighting, but followers — including his son — have since visited his grave.
The strike occurred as Israel escalated operations in Lebanon following near-daily rocket and drone attacks on northern border communities by Hezbollah, which began on October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza. The escalation displaced roughly 60,000 residents in northern Israel.
The Israel-Hezbollah war ended with a ceasefire on November 27, 2024, which required Hezbollah to hand over weapons in southern Lebanon to the Lebanese state. Israel has since accused the group of violating the agreement and has conducted dozens of intermittent strikes on Hezbollah positions.
The ceasefire also stipulated that Israeli forces withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days, but Israel continues to control five strategic points despite Lebanese calls for a full pullout.
The combination of Nasrallah’s death and the losses suffered during the war has left Hezbollah significantly weakened, though the group continues to maintain limited operational capabilities and a notable political presence in Lebanon.