Transcript
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In Beirut, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah buried one of its top leaders who was killed in an airstrike by Israel this week in the city's suburbs. The U.S. had, for years, placed a $5 million bounty on the commander, accusing him of being involved in a deadly attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in 1983. The leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said the war in Gaza had now entered a new phase. In Tehran, the Iranian government held a memorial for a senior Hamas commander killed in an attack that it blamed on Israel. NPR's Jane Arraf was at the Hezbollah ceremony and joins us now from Beirut. Hi, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: So tell us more about what the ceremony was like.
ARRAF: Well, it was held in Beirut's southern suburbs, not far from where Fuad Shukr was killed Tuesday. Seven other people, including women and children, were also killed in the attack. But the focus here was on the commander, described as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's right-hand man. There were thousands of mourners in the hall. Some of them held up posters of Shukr or waved Hezbollah and Palestinian flags. A honor guard carried out a coffin draped with Hezbollah colors, bright yellow and green, and covered in flowers. It lay on the stage during an almost hour-long video address by Nasrallah.
CHANG: Well, I know that Nasrallah had been expected to signal some sort of retaliation that Hezbollah intended for the commander's killing. Did he actually do that today?
ARRAF: Really only in general terms. He spoke about Shukr's background. He had fought in Bosnia and was one of the founders of Hezbollah units in Lebanon. He said Shukr was involved in operations in the south of Lebanon, and he spoke with them every day, sometimes every hour, regarding what comes next. Here's what Nasrallah had to say.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HASSAN NASRALLAH: (Through interpreter) I'm not saying we reserve for ourselves the right to respond at the appropriate time and place. No, not at all. We will respond. This is certain. And they must wait.
ARRAF: And he noted that Shukr, in his early 60s, was from the original generation of Hezbollah leaders, but that there was a new generation coming up.
CHANG: Well, as you were listening, what did the mourners have to say today?
ARRAF: There were chants of death to America, death to Israel, which we hear quite a lot. I asked one of the men chanting - he'd actually been Shukr's neighbor - what he meant exactly.
KHALED HAIDER: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: Khaled Haider said it's not the American people he means. It's the U.S. administration. And he said he wasn't referring to what he called moderate Israeli Jews, but the Israeli administration. Over in the women's section, thousands of people had come to pay tribute and proclaim their Shia faith. This is one of them, Miriam Ahmed, who said they would continue on the path of the companions of the prophet.
MIRIAM AHMED: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "We are behind you, your children, your grandchildren, our brothers, our children," she says. I met one of his granddaughters, Batoul Afif, 11 years old. In a sea of resolute faces, Batoul was crying.
BATOUL AFIF: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: She says, "Grandpa, why did you leave us? I'm so sad." Batoul was just one of the many people there who had relatives killed in battle.
CHANG: All right. Well, I do want to turn to Tehran now because a procession happened there for Ismael Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political bureau. We're seeing that both Iran and Hamas are blaming Israel for the airstrike that killed him, right?
ARRAF: Yeah. Israel hasn't confirmed or denied killing him and likely won't. Ismael Haniyeh was directly involved in Gaza cease-fire negotiations with Israel that have been taking place brokered by the U.S., Egypt and Katar. He'll be buried in Qatar, where he was based, and his body was flown there from Iran today for a funeral tomorrow. That killing appeared to be a shock to Iran. He was a guest at the inauguration of the new Iranian president just hours before he was killed. Iran too has said it will retaliate.
CHANG: That is NPR's Jane Arraf in Beirut. Thank you so much, Jane.
ARRAF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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