Lebanon: Lebanese on Friday conducted a delayed burial in a border village for more than 90 civilians and fighters from the Hezbollah movement who died during the war with Israel that ended with a November ceasefire. Under the truce, Israel had an initial 60 days, later extended to February 18, to pull out its troops from southern Lebanon, but it did not withdraw most of them until the later deadline. In the heavily damaged town square of Aitaroun, the coffins arrived on four trucks, some covered in the yellow flag of Iran-backed Hezbollah, others in the national flag. Flowers were scattered on top. Sobbing women, dressed in black, gathered around the vehicles holding photos of the Hezbollah fighters or the movement’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed by an Israeli air strike during the war. The coffins were then transported to a cemetery where 95 graves were dug, each marked by a number. The dead included 51 Hezbollah fighters, most of them killed in combat, and 31 civilians, including five children and 16 women, killed by Israeli strikes, according to a channel dedicated to the village on the Telegram app. It added there were 13 people who had died of natural causes. One of the mourners, Atef Khouzeirat, said an Israeli strike on a building killed his son Hussein, a volunteer with the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee. “My son stayed for 56 days inside the building after his death, without rescuers being able to recover his body,” Khouzeirat said. “Where is the humanity? Where are the human rights?” Khouzeirat added that his son had studied radiography at university. “He was not a terrorist,” but a volunteer “in the service of his country.” Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in October 2023, saying it was acting in support of Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza. Nearly a year of low-level conflict escalated in September last year, with Israel sending in ground troops. The ceasefire took effect on November 27, after more than a year of conflict killed more than 4,000 people. Reconstruction costs are expected to top $10 billion, Lebanese authorities have said.
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