Hundreds of people gathered in south Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh on Sunday to mourn five Hezbollah members killed in recent Israeli attacks, an AFP correspondent said, as Israel warned of intensifying attacks against the Iran-backed group.
On Saturday, an Israeli strike killed four people in Kfar Rumman, Nabatiyeh district, the Lebanese health ministry and the Israeli military said.
Israel said the four were members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.
The attack came a day after the Israeli military said it had killed “a Hezbollah maintenance officer” working to re-establish the group’s infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon in a strike on the same district.
An AFP correspondent at the funeral said hundreds of people gathered in Nabatiyeh city to mourn the five.
The men’s coffins were draped in Hezbollah’s flag while mourners threw petals and chanted “death to Israel, death to America”.
Hezbollah fighters in military garb were present, swearing loyalty to Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s former leader killed by Israel in September 2024, and to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Some held pictures of relatives killed by Israel, he added.
“This is a price the south is paying on a daily basis,” Rana Hamed, mother of one the five men killed, told AFP.
“We know that Israel has been our enemy for decades.”
Hezbollah first began launching cross-border fire at Israel following the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023, kicking off a more than year-long conflict that culminated in two months of open war before last year’s ceasefire was agreed.
Israel, however, has never stopped carrying out air strikes on Lebanon — usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah positions — and has stepped up the attacks in recent days.
It warned on Sunday that it would intensify its attacks against the group, with Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz claiming Hezbollah is “playing with fire, and the president of Lebanon is dragging his feet”.
Hezbollah was badly weakened during the war, and the United States has pressured Lebanon to disarm the Iran-backed group.
On Friday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of responding to his offer to negotiate by intensifying its air strikes.
While Lebanese authorities held indirect talks with Israel in the past, US envoy Tom Barrack told reporters in Bahrain on Saturday that his country was pushing for direct negotiations.
str-nad/dcp
© Agence France-Presse
