BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem told supporters gathered in Lebanon on Sunday to mark two years since the killing of his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, that Israel had been unable to break his Iran-backed terror group.

The terrorist organization 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 airstrikes and a ground invasion that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,300 people. Lebanon’s figures do not differentiate between civilians and Hezbollah fighters.

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.

Tens of thousands of people, some carrying Hezbollah, Lebanese and Iranian flags or pictures of Nasrallah, rallied at 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 was revered by his supporters, but headed a terror group whose armed wing is blacklisted by many Western capitals. He 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........

© The Times of Israel