An unusual funeral flyby
February 24, 2025
It is not unusual for high profile funerals to be marked by a flypast. As a nation marks the passing of a monarch, a president or even a prime minister or former armed forces chief that country’s air force might dispatch a small formation of aircraft to mark the event. Such flypasts have to be carefully planned to avoid disrupting the most sombre moments of a funeral, which requires careful co-ordination and split-second timing.
But on 23 February 2025 the Israel Air Force (IDF/AF) dispatched a formation of four fast jets to Beirut, where they flew over the joint funeral of Hassan Nasrallah and his successor, Hashem Safieddine, which was held at the abandoned Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium.
Nasrallah was the third secretary-general of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militia, labelled by Israel (and many Western nations) as a terrorist organisation.
The Israeli formation was a relatively tight ‘vic’ (and not a tactical formation), and consisted of an F-15I leading a pair of stealthy F-35I Adir Joint Strike Fighters, with a second F-15I offset to starboard and acting as a photoship.
The funeral flyover followed a wave of Israeli air strikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, mainly targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers. The funeral flypast appears to have been entirely separate from these. It was not, however, any kind of tribute to a deceased foe!
Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, explained that the Israeli aircraft flew over the stadium while the funeral took place in order to “convey a clear message: whoever threatens to destroy Israel – that will be the end of them. You focus on funerals—we focus on victories.”
Ironically, the Israel Air Force had been responsible for killing both Nasrallah and Safieddine.
Nasrallah was killed on the evening of 27 September 2024in a targeted air strike against the Hezbollah headquarters in Dahieh, a suburb of Beirut and a stronghold of Hezbollah. The next day, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that Nasrallah had died in the strike, and this was later confirmed by Hezbollah and Lebanese authorities. It has been reported that Nasrallah succumbed to the toxic fumes he inhaled while buried under the rubble.
After his death, Nasrallah was temporarily buried in a secret location to avoid potential Israeli attacks on his funeral, which finally took place on 23 February 2025. His successor, Hashem Safieddine was killed by another IDF airstrikes on the night of 3 October 2024. The airstrike targeted an underground bunker in Dahieh where Safieddine was known to be present.
