Nasrallah funeral shrouded in secrecy amid fears of being targeted by Israel
Details of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral are being kept under wraps amid mounting threats of an Israeli ground invasion, senior military figures have said.
Nasrallah, the militant group’s secretary general for over 30 years, died slowly and painfully as he inhaled toxic gases following a targeted Israeli air strike, Israel’s media has said.
Despite Lebanon’s PM Najib Mikati declaring his country will observe three days of mourning for the Hezbollah boss, the group itself has not yet detailed when his funeral will be held.
His death at the hands of an American-made weapon, according to US senator Mark Kelly, has already prompted shows of protest in the Shia Muslim world – as well as in Shia minority areas like Pakistan.
And despite the symbolic assassination of its long-time enemy, Israel shows no signs of slowing down.
One Israeli intelligence source, speaking to The Telegraph, said the IDF would be trying to leverage its current advantage to its benefit – having already sparked an organisational crisis within Hezbollah by killing most of its senior leadership.
But he also took aim at the US for stifling his country’s military goals, saying: “The question now is what the US will do, and I just hope the US doesn’t get involved and pull us back.
“Until now, the US has done nothing but interfere, both with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, holding us back in a bid to seek a diplomatic solution when we need to push forward militarily if we stand any chance of defeating Hezbollah and returning the citizens of the north.”
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And US President Joe Biden, asked if an all-out war in the Middle East could be avoided, said: “It has to be.”
In the UK, the Government has once again called for a ceasefire, with Sir Keir Starmer declaring: “We want to see all sides step back from the brink.”
Top Israeli figures have remained bullish, however – on Sunday, the country’s defence minister Yoav Gallant said: “Our message is clear – for us, no place is too far.”
While Israel’s military chief of staff Herzi Halevi said: “It has lost its head, and we need to keep hitting Hezbollah hard.”
That followed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own ominous address to Iran and its proxies: “If someone rises up to kill you, kill him first… There is no place in Iran or the Middle East that the long arm of Israel cannot reach.”
Israel has remained coy on just what its next step might entail – but ex-British Army officer Andrew Fox told The Telegraph that it was likely targeting known Hezbollah positions and attempting to clear the area of munitions and missile launch sites.
On Monday, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said its fighters were primed to confront any Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon.
“We will face any possibility and we are ready if the Israelis decide to enter by land and the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement,” he said in an address from an undisclosed location.