Thousands of mourners joined Hezbollah on Monday for the funeral of one of its top commanders, a day after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a southern district of Beirut.
Supporters of the group walked alongside the coffin of Haytham Tabtabai, which was wrapped in Hezbollah’s yellow flag, as it was carried through the crowd. Tabtabai and two other Hezbollah members were buried in a cemetery south of Beirut where the group traditionally inters its fighters.
The strike on Sunday marked Israel’s first attack on the Lebanese capital since June. Israel said the operation targeted and killed Tabtabai, whom its military identified as Hezbollah’s chief of staff. Israel also cautioned the Iran-backed group against rebuilding its arsenal one year after their most recent conflict ended with a U.S.-mediated ceasefire.
According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, the attack killed five people and injured 28 others.
“He (Israel) wants us to surrender so they can enter our homes? Look at Gaza—did they achieve anything?” said a supporter named Jaafar, expressing defiance. Another supporter, Fatima Shehadeh, vowed that “no matter the bloodshed, we will never surrender or give up the weapons of the resistance.”
France’s Foreign Ministry voiced “deep concern” on Monday over the strike and the risk of further escalation, urging all sides to use the ceasefire monitoring system to report threats rather than take “unilateral actions.”
Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon have intensified in recent weeks amid U.S. and Israeli pressure on Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah.
Israel insists the group is working to reconstitute its military capabilities. Lebanon, while supporting the goal of disarming Hezbollah, denies the claim and says its own troops have been deployed to the south but lack sufficient resources due to financial constraints.
In December, Hezbollah launched several rockets into open areas near an Israeli military base, calling the move a “warning.” It was the group’s only attack since the ceasefire that ended last year’s Israel-Hezbollah war.