A Lebanese woman holds a portrait of slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, as she waits with others for permission from the Lebanese army to enter their village after the Israeli troops withdrew from it, in Bint Jbeil town, south Lebanon, on January 26, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

The head of Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah said on Sunday (February 2, 2025) that his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, would be laid to rest on February 23, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli air attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Nasrallah, who had served as Hezbollah’s secretary general for more than 30 years, was killed on September 27 as Israel ramped up its air attacks on Hezbollah targets and just days before Israeli troops began ground incursions into southern Lebanon.

His successor Naim Qassem said in a televised address on Sunday that Nasrallah was killed “at a time when circumstances were difficult,” forcing the group to conduct a temporary burial for him according to religious tradition.

Mr. Qassem said the group had now decided to hold “a grand funeral procession with a large public presence” for both Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, another top Hezbollah official killed in an Israeli strike nearly a week after Nasrallah.

Mr. Qassem confirmed on Sunday for the first time that Safieddine had been elected as Nasrallah’s successor but was killed before the announcement was made. He said Safieddine would also be buried with the title of secretary general.

The killings of both Nasrallah and Safieddine — as well as many of the group’s top military commanders — threw Hezbollah into disarray. The group announced on October 29 that Mr. Qassem, the group’s deputy leader, had been elected as its head.

A ceasefire agreed in late November ended hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel and set a 60-day deadline for Israeli troops to withdraw from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah to remove its fighters and arms from the area and Lebanese troops to deploy there.

That deadline was extended last month until February 18. Israel has continued to carry out some airstrikes on parts of Lebanon, accusing Hezbollah of violating the terms of the ceasefire.

Hezbollah says Israel is responsible for the breaches and says the Lebanese state and the deal’s foreign sponsors — the U.S. and France — should prevent Israel’s violations. But it has not threatened to resume fighting.

Jerusalem:

The Israeli government’s security cabinet has approved a plan to extend compulsory military service for men to 36 months from the current 32 months, Israel’s Ynet news outlet reported on Friday.

The 36-month rule will stay in force for the next eight years, Ynet reported, after a meeting of the security cabinet that took place late on Thursday.

The measure is likely to be submitted to a vote in a meeting of the full cabinet on Sunday, it said.

Israel’s military commanders have said they need to boost manpower so they can sustain the war with the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza and a confrontation with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia.

In a separate initiative, Israel is planning to send draft notices to thousands of ultra-Orthodox seminary students who were previously exempt from military service.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A house lies in ruins in the border area of Shebaa in southern Lebanon, following an Israeli strike on April 27, 2024 , amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza.
| Photo Credit: AFP

UNICEF, the children’s agency of the UN, said on April 30 that conflict on Lebanon’s border between Hezbollah militant group and Israel was taking a heavy toll on children, with thousands out of school and healthcare “critically impacted”.

“We are deeply alarmed by the situation of children and families who have been forced from their homes,” Edouard Beigbeder, the Lebanon representative for UNICEF, said in a statement. He also highlighted “the profound long-term impact the violence is taking on children’s safety, health and access to education”.

“We call for an immediate ceasefire and the protection of children and civilians,” he said. “We must redouble our efforts to make sure every child in Lebanon is in school and learning, is protected from physical and mental harm, and has the opportunity to thrive.”

Eight children have been killed in Lebanon and 75 wounded since hostilities started following Israel’s war on Gaza, UNICEF said, citing figures from the country’s Health Ministry.

More than 92,000 people, almost a third of them children, have meanwhile been displaced, according to the UN’s migration agency. “Should this conflict continue to escalate… the repercussions for children will be devastating,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told a press conference in Geneva.