Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem told supporters gathered in Lebanon on Sunday to mark two years since the killing of longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah that Israel had been unable to break his Iran-backed group. The party was weakened after all-out war with Israel in 2024, but regrouped and drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict in March this year by attacking Israel, which responded with massive airstrikes and a ground invasion that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,300 people. Hezbollah has demonstrated that Israel and its soldiers "were unable to achieve their goals to break the resistance, end its existence, consolidate the Israeli occupation and establish settlements in Lebanon", Qassem said in a televised speech broadcast at the gathering. AFP correspondents saw tens of thousands of people, some carrying Hezbollah, Lebanese and Iranian flags or pictures of Nasrallah, rallying for the commemorative event near the slain leader's tomb in Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel bombed during conflicts this year and in 2024. Some in the crowd chanted "death to America, death to Israel". Nasrallah, a leader revered by his supporters but who headed a group whose armed wing is blacklisted by many Western capitals, was killed in a massive Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs on September 27, 2024. The assassination came during more than two months of all-out war that pummeled Hezbollah and decimated its top leadership. Nasrallah's chosen successor Hashem Safieddine, who was also being commemorated on Sunday, was killed in another strike days after his predecessor. The latest hostilities have further weakened the group. - 'Liberate the south' - Ali Nasser, 30, from Haddatha in south Lebanon, said "this is a historic day. Every year we commemorate it to renew our pledge" to Nasrallah "that we are walking along his path". The former chief "illuminated the path for us and God willing, we'll carry on... these crowds are proof of our continuation and our loyalty to this pledge", he added. After a November 2024 ceasefire, Lebanese authorities committed to disarming Hezbollah and banned the group's military activities after it drew Lebanon into this year's Middle East war. Violence in Lebanon has decreased since a fragile ceasefire announced in June after the signing of a US-Iran understanding on the broader conflict. Lebanon and Israel reached a framework agreement later that month, under which Hezbollah is supposed to disarm and the Lebanese military to deploy in so-called pilot zones in south Lebanon as Israel withdraws. But progress has largely stalled, with Israel warning it will stay put as long as Hezbollah remains a threat. "We are ready for dialogue and discussion, but first, liberate the south, and let the people return," Qassem said. He said that with the framework agreement, "the authorities are helping the Israeli-US project instead of confronting it". "All the pressure on Lebanon today aims to accomplish what Israel was unable to achieve over two years," he said, adding that the Lebanese national army should not be used as "a tool" against the group. Israel has kept up its attacks and maintains troops in a self-declared "security zone" running around 10 kilometers (six miles) inside south Lebanon. Israel's far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Sunday for the annexation of areas of south Lebanon under Israeli military control "as far as the Litani River", which runs about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border. Qassem said holding onto positions "is not the main objective" for his group, after Israel carried out massive detonations this month to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure on the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge. "With the great sacrifices that we have made up until now, we can only keep going, and we cannot be defeated," Qassem vowed.
