Hezbollah holds mass funeral in southern Lebanon village

Hezbollah held a mass funeral on Saturday in Majdal Selm, a heavily damaged village in southern Lebanon, for dozens of people, most of them fighters killed in the latest fighting with Israel.

The group buried 44 people in the village. The report said 39 were Hezbollah fighters, four were civilians said to have been killed in Israeli operations, and one was a man who died of natural causes.

Trucks carried coffins to the burial site as women wept and held portraits of the dead. Some also held portraits of Iran's late supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, whom the report said was killed in US-Israeli strikes on Tehran in February.

Hezbollah, described in the report as an Iran-backed Shia group, does not disclose how many fighters it has lost. It has held several funerals during the current lull in fighting, which the report said followed the signing of a US-Iran memorandum of understanding on June 17.

Many Lebanese families had been unable to bury relatives in their home towns while fighting continued. The report said Shia Muslim rites allow temporary burial when circumstances prevent a proper funeral or when the dead cannot be buried where they wished.

An announcement to Hezbollah supporters invited them to attend what it called the funeral of Majdal Selm's martyrs and listed the names of the dead. A separate announcement that circulated widely online listed 129 names, but the Majdal Selm municipality rejected that number as inaccurate and baseless.

The funeral came as Lebanese President Joseph Aoun travelled to Washington, where he was expected to meet US President Donald Trump after the latest round of Israel-Lebanon talks concluded earlier in the week.

Israel and Lebanon began US-sponsored negotiations in April aimed at reaching a peace deal and ending the Israel-Hezbollah war permanently. On June 26, they reached a framework agreement in Washington under which the Israeli military would withdraw from southern Lebanon and the Lebanese army would deploy, starting with two pilot zones.

The report said the agreement depends on the disarmament of Hezbollah. Hezbollah has rejected both the deal and the negotiations.