To justify the 11-month-old conflict with the Israeli army, Hezbollah wants to show that each of its men who falls in combat is treated equally in his sacrifice.
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In Lebanon, after unprecedented exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army last weekend, the pressure is easing, but the conflict continues. The Lebanese group continues to fire its rockets at Israel. To the exhausted Lebanese, Hezbollah tries to justify its war, by celebrating the men who die for its cause.
The detonation of Israeli fighter jets breaking the sound barrier, a noise that has become almost daily in the Tyre region, in southern Lebanon. In the coastal city, on the edge of the area where the clashes are starting, several thousand people have gathered. They are chanting slogans praising Hezbollah and its leader.
The crowd carries a coffin: that of Ali Shaheen, a militia fighter who died a few days ago at the border. Hammad is a family member and holds the hand of his 7-year-old son. “I wanted him to come and show him what it means to give your life. To tell him that we die as martyrs for the good of others, to defend our lands and our homes.”
Hezbollah holds the same funeral for each of its fighters, regardless of rank. Very expensive ceremonies where every slogan, every poster, every outfit of the pallbearers is codified. Hezbollah wants to show that each of its men is treated equally in their sacrifice, a way of carrying its narrative of “resistance against Israel”. A story that is all the more relevant in this south of Lebanon, abandoned by the State and marked by the trauma of occupation and recent wars.
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Among the crowd, Hassan, in his fifties, says he supports Hezbollah whatever the cost. “Israel stole the land of the Palestinians. Since we were little, they have lived among us, forced into exile. And since then, Israel has been bombing us all. That is why we support the confrontation.”
Men in military uniforms carry the coffin the last few meters of the cemetery. More than 460 other fighters have died since the beginning of the conflict, all glorified as martyrs by Hezbollah. But behind the neat story of the militia party, the feeling of the populations is above all one of worry. After almost 11 months of war and the death of 130 Lebanese civilians, the conflict drags on. In Lebanon, never has a war with Israel lasted so long.