The funeral drew thousands into the streets of the Hezbollah-dominated neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday afternoon, where many mourners shook their fists and proudly waved the armed group’s yellow flag. They had gathered to commemorate Ibrahim Aqeel and Mahmoud Hamad, two Hezbollah commanders killed in an Israeli airstrike last week.
The procession capped a week defined by explosions and funerals in the neighborhood, Dahiya, a densely populated suburb south of central Beirut. During a speech by one Hezbollah leader who vowed retaliation, a sense of defiance coursed through the crowd. But many residents there were also grappling with uncertainty over what would come next — and the prospect of the conflict with Israel spiraling into an all-out war.
Dahiya’s streets, usually bustling on a weekend, were eerily empty. Shops were closed, their doors locked behind metal gates, and the few cafes open were mostly empty.
“I have been to 15 funerals this week,” said a 50-year-old woman as she stood outside another funeral early Sunday afternoon for two young men killed in the airstrike on Friday. “We’ve been waiting for this moment, we’ve been waiting for this war,” she added, declining to give her name for fear of reprisal.
Like many other residents in the neighborhood, her tone was defiant — an echo of the image of strength that Hezbollah has sought to project in the wake of the attacks by Israel this week.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, many residents were glued to their phones and televisions, waiting for news of additional Israeli airstrikes — and hoping to hear that Hezbollah had retaliated.
Hawra’a Hijazi, 49, said she nearly ran into the street to celebrate when news began to trickle in that Hezbollah had launched a barrage of rockets, missiles and drones into Israeli territory overnight.
“I couldn’t sleep, I could sense the retaliation was coming,” she said.
Simmering beneath that public confidence, there was also a sense of dread — the grim realities and routines of war known all too well to residents. Some were quietly debating how to prepare: Should they remain in Dahiya? Go stay with relatives in a different part of Beirut? Leave the city entirely for second homes in the northern mountains?
Addressing the funeral of the two Hezbollah commanders, the group’s deputy leader, Naim Qassem, said that “what happened last night is just the beginning,” referring to the overnight barrage launched at Israel. He also warned that the conflict had entered a “new stage.”
“We will kill them and fight them from where they expect and from where they do not expect,” he said, his voice echoing through loudspeakers to the thousands of people gathered.
Mr. Qaseem’s speech — in an area of Dahiya that was devastated by Israeli bombardment during the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel and holds symbolic significance for its residents — seemed to make the prospect of an escalation in the hostilities all the more real. But it also tapped into an undercurrent of anger in the neighborhood, where hundreds if not thousands of people were injured in the explosions over the past week.
“We want more retaliation,” said Fatima Karaki, 26. “The way they are killing our leaders, we want the resistance to kill their leaders.”
Around her, women nodded in agreement, many proudly wearing pins with the faces of relatives who had been killed in various conflicts in Lebanon and Syria over the past two decades.
“We are ready for that, we are ready for war,” she added.
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