AP PHOTOS: Mourners pack into Beirut stadium and streets for Hezbollah leader’s funeral

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Mourners hold pictures of Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, right, and his cousin and successor Hashem Safieddine as they gather to attend their funeral procession in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

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People attend the funeral ceremony of the Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor Hashem Safieddine at the Sports City Stadium in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

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Mourners react as a trailer carrying the coffins containing the bodies of Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor Hashem Safieddine drives through the crowd at the beginning of a funeral procession in the Sports City Stadium in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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A mourner holds a sign with an image depicting the Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah during a ceremony for his funeral and his cousin and successor Hashem Safieddine, outside the Sports City Stadium in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

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Mourners hold pictures of Lebanon’s former Hezbollah leaders, Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, as they gather to attend their funeral procession in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

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Mourners wave Hezbollah flags, right, as the trailer carrying the coffins containing the bodies of Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor Hashem Safieddine drives through the crowd at the beginning of a funeral procession in the Sports City Stadium in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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The coffins containing the bodies of Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor Hashem Safieddine are carried on a trailer at the beginning of a funeral procession at the Sports City Stadium in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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A boy holds a flower during the funeral procession of Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor Hashem Safieddine, outside the Sports City Stadium in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

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A woman raises her fist as a trailer carrying the coffins containing the bodies of Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor Hashem Safieddine drives through the crowd at the beginning of a funeral procession in the Sports City Stadium in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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A trailer carrying the coffins containing the bodies of Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor Hashem Safieddine drives through the crowd at the beginning of a funeral procession in the Sports City Stadium in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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Israeli fighter jets fly over the city during the funeral procession of Lebanon’s former Hezbollah leaders, Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor, Hashem Safieddine, in Beirut, Lebanon,Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

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A mourner reacts during the funeral procession of Lebanon’s former Hezbollah leaders, Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor, Hashem Safieddine, at Nasrallah’s burial site in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

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An Israeli fighter jet flies over a Lebanese airforce Cessna plane during the funeral ceremony of Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor Hashem Safieddine in the Sports City Stadium in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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A Hezbollah supporter chants slogans during the funeral procession of Lebanon’s former Hezbollah leaders, Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor, Hashem Safieddine, at Nasrallah’s burial site in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

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A Hezbollah supporter reacts during the funeral procession of Lebanon’s former Hezbollah leaders, Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor, Hashem Safieddine, at Nasrallah’s burial site in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

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A trailer carrying the coffins containing the bodies of Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor Hashem Safieddine drives through the crowd as it enters the Sports City Stadium during a funeral procession in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

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A Mourner reacts during the funeral procession of Lebanon’s former Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin and successor, Hashem Safieddine, at the burial site in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

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A trailer carrying the coffins of Hezbollah’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and his cousin and successor, Hashem Safieddine, passes through the Hezbollah honor guard during a funeral procession at the burial site in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

By Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was buried on Sunday after a massive funeral procession in Beirut, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike during the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.

The Lebanese militant group lost most of its senior leadership and saw its military capabilities severely degraded in the 14-month conflict, which ended with a ceasefire agreement in November.

Many of the group’s primarily Shiite Muslim followers in southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs lost homes and family members, but the psychological blow of Nasrallah’s death was particularly heavy for many.

Designated a terrorist by the United States, his supporters idolized him as a hero because he had led Hezbollah when it forced the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in 2000 and during the brutal monthlong war in 2006 in which the militant group fought Israel to a draw.

Nasrallah’s funeral, which drew hundreds of thousands of people, was a chance for Hezbollah to flex its muscles and show it still has a significant base of support.

Mourners lined up waiting for Nasrallah’s coffin — and that of his cousin and successor, Hashem Safieddine, also killed in an Israeli airstrike — to pass by in hopes of catching one of the flowers tossed by men riding on the platforms.

Not PARSE.LY: Hashem Safieddine

Masses of mourners attend the funeral of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah, 5 months after his killing

Some tossed scarves, shirts and other objects onto the coffins, believing that by touching them the garments would be blessed. Men and women cried openly, clutching posters with Nasrallah and Safieddine’s faces.

As the caskets wound their way through a sports stadium in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Israeli fighter jets flashed by overhead, flying low. The crowd responded by chanting, “Death to Israel.”