Lebanese on Friday carried out a delayed burial in a border village for greater than 90 civilians and fighters from the Hezbollah motion who died in the course of the warfare with Israel that ended with a November ceasefire.
Below the truce, Israel had an preliminary 60 days, later prolonged to February 18, to tug out its troops from southern Lebanon, but it surely didn’t withdraw most of them till the later deadline.
Within the closely broken city sq. of Aitaroun, the coffins arrived on 4 vans, some lined within the yellow flag of Iran-backed Hezbollah, others within the nationwide flag.
Flowers have been scattered on high.
Sobbing ladies, wearing black, gathered across the automobiles holding photographs of the Hezbollah fighters or the motion’s chief Hassan Nasrallah, killed by an Israeli air strike in the course of the warfare.
The coffins have been then transported to a cemetery the place 95 graves have been dug, every marked by a quantity.
The useless included 51 Hezbollah fighters, most of them killed in fight, and 31 civilians, together with 5 youngsters and 16 ladies, killed by Israeli strikes, in response to a channel devoted to the village on the Telegram app.
It added there have been 13 individuals who had died of pure causes.
One of many mourners, Atef Khouzeirat, mentioned an Israeli strike on a constructing killed his son Hussein, a volunteer with the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Well being Committee.
“My son stayed for 56 days contained in the constructing after his dying, with out rescuers having the ability to get better his physique,” Khouzeirat mentioned. “The place is the humanity? The place are the human rights?”
Khouzeirat added that his son had studied radiography at college. “He was not a terrorist,” however a volunteer “within the service of his nation.”
Hezbollah started firing rockets into Israel in October 2023, saying it was appearing in assist of Hamas in its warfare with Israel in Gaza. Practically a yr of low-level battle escalated in September final yr, with Israel sending in floor troops.
The ceasefire took impact on November 27, after greater than a yr of battle killed greater than 4,000 individuals. Reconstruction prices are anticipated to high $10 billion, Lebanese authorities have mentioned.
