South Bids Farewell to Young Hizbullah Fighters 'Kazem' and 'Sayyed Jawad'

Hizbullah held funerals Wednesday for two of its fighters who were killed Sunday in an unprecedented Israeli airstrike on the Syrian region of Quneitra.

Coincidence doubled the grief in the southern town of Ghaziyeh, where a joint funeral was held for the slain young fighter Abbas Hijazi, aka Sayyed Jawad, and his father who died in coma only a few hours after the lethal Israeli strike. The father had been lying unconscious in an intensive care unit for around a month.

Several Hizbullah officials attended the funeral, including State Minister for Administrative Development Mohammed Fneish.

Hijazi, 36, took part in all the main battles fought by Hizbullah in the past few years, from the all-out 2006 war against Israel to the recent campaigns in Syria's Qusayr and Yabrud. His missions in Syria were part of a joint effort by Hizbullah and Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

Meanwhile, another funeral was held Wednesday in the southern town of Ain Qana, which bid farewell to slain Hizbullah fighter Mohammed Ali Abou al-Hassan, aka Kazem.

The coffin that was draped in Hizbullah's yellow flag moved forward amid a huge crowd of mourners, led by Abou al-Hassan's friends and MP Mohammed Raad, head of Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance bloc.

Thirty-year-old Kazem, who went on Facebook under the pseudonym Elia Grafika, was a graphic designer who worked for several companies in Lebanon. Even his close friends did not know that he was a member of a Hizbullah special forces unit.

“Kazem” and “Sayyed Jawad” were among six Hizbullah fighters killed in the Israeli raid, including senior commander Mohammed Issa and Jihad Mughniyeh, a son of Hizbullah's top military commander Imad Mughniyeh who was killed in a 2008 assassination in Damascus that was blamed on Israel.

Top Iranian general Mohammad Ali Allahdadi was also among the victims of the Quneitra strike on Sunday.

Y.R.

M.T.