Flowers, tears and defiance as thousands bury nearly 100 in Lebanon

Thousands of mourners gathered in southern Lebanon for an emotional funeral ceremony, honoring nearly 100 Lebanese people who were killed during last year’s war between Israel and Hezbollah. This large-scale funeral, held in the village of Aitaroun, was the biggest mass burial Lebanon has seen since the US-brokered ceasefire came into effect three months earlier.

The ceremony followed a separate funeral in Beirut the week before, where tens of thousands came out to pay respects to Hezbollah’s former leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and one of his top aides. The reburial in Aitaroun was arranged to bring home the remains of those killed so they could finally be laid to rest in their hometown. The 95 bodies had originally been buried elsewhere due to the intensity of the conflict and were only recently exhumed for this homecoming.

Aitaroun, one of the largest villages in southern Lebanon, was left heavily damaged by the war. Thousands of residents were finally able to return after Israeli forces withdrew from the village in early February. On the day of the reburial, crowds of mourners from Aitaroun and surrounding villages lined the streets, throwing flowers and spraying rose water over the trucks carrying the coffins. Among the mourners were families still searching for the remains of five missing individuals.

Of the 95 buried, at least 51 were Hezbollah fighters who had been killed either in Aitaroun or nearby villages. The procession was filled with emotion as relatives carried posters of the deceased, some of whom were as young as 18. The victims also included 16 women, five children, and 10 members of the civil defense who died in the line of duty.

Fatima Hejazi, whose 29-year-old brother Ali was among the dead, spoke of her heartbreak while also expressing pride in her brother’s death as part of Hezbollah’s resistance efforts. She, like many others at the funeral, saw those killed as martyrs who gave their lives for the cause.

Since Israel intensified its military campaign against Hezbollah in September, the group has reportedly lost hundreds of fighters. However, Hezbollah has not released updated figures on its total losses, though before the escalation they had admitted to losing over 500 fighters during the prior year of lower-level hostilities.

During the funeral in Aitaroun, Hezbollah leaders and supporters struck a determined and defiant tone. As the trucks carrying the coffins arrived, organizers called on the crowd to welcome them as heroes. Addressing the mourners, former Hezbollah-allied minister Ibrahim Bayram acknowledged the heavy losses but insisted that the group remains strong. He also urged Lebanon’s government to act with independence rather than under foreign pressure.

Among those remembered was a 10-month-old baby girl, who was killed along with 22 others in an Israeli airstrike on October 14, targeting a residential building sheltering displaced families from Aitaroun.

At least 32 of the individuals reburied were killed in two particularly deadly Israeli strikes — one on Ain el-Delb in southern Lebanon, and another in Aito, a village in Lebanon’s Christian-majority Zgharta district. These victims, originally from Aitaroun, had been displaced to these areas before being killed.

Atef Khouzeirat, who lost his son Hussein in one of the strikes, spoke with anger and sorrow. Hussein, a university graduate who studied radiography, was volunteering with Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Committee at the time. Khouzeirat recounted how his son’s body remained trapped under rubble for 56 days before rescuers were finally able to retrieve it, questioning where the world’s humanity and human rights were in such moments of suffering.

The ceremony was attended by official delegations from Iran, Iraq, and Yemen, underscoring the regional significance of the event and Hezbollah’s ties to Tehran and other allies.

The wider conflict erupted after Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel on October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas fighters carried out a deadly incursion into southern Israel, which sparked the ongoing war in Gaza. In response, Israel targeted Hezbollah positions with artillery and airstrikes, leading to a steadily intensifying cross-border conflict that escalated into full-scale warfare in September.

The toll in Lebanon has been severe, with more than 4,000 killed and over a million people displaced. To date, more than 100,000 Lebanese remain unable to return home due to continued damage and instability. On the Israeli side, dozens of people were killed, and around 60,000 residents of northern Israel were forced to leave their homes to escape the fighting.