Hundreds of worshippers spill onto Sydney streets as Muslims gather at mosques to pay tribute to Hezbollah terror chief killed in Israeli airstrike – as Middle East teeters on the brink of all-out war

Sydney mosques have been flooded with hundreds of mourners paying their respects to slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Large crowds poured into the streets outside the Al Rahman Mosque in Kingsgrove, south-west Sydney, on Monday evening for the service commemorating Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon on Friday.

Hezbollah, a militant and political group originating in Lebanon, has been listed as a terrorist organization in Australia and its death was hailed by President Joe Biden as “a measure of justice for its many victims.”

Cars were double-parked on surrounding footpaths as an estimated crowd of around 1,000 people, mostly dressed in dark clothing, gathered for the start of the vigil at 7pm, which will last three nights.

The first night of the vigil was streamed live – with the Al Rahman Mosque writing on Facebook that it would hold a service “for the souls of the righteous martyrs, the master of the resistance, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.”

Some mourners were turned away when the mosque was full and had to watch the vigil from their phones instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Two other Sydney mosques in the city’s south are also holding three-day vigils.

The Sayeda Zainab Center in Banksia will hold funerals for Nasrallah from Sunday to Tuesday.

The Al Zahra Mosque in Arncliffe will also host events over three days.

‘Three days of mourning will be held… for the soul of the leader of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the souls of the righteous martyrs who left with him and all those who were innocently killed as a result of the Zionist aggression in Lebanon and Palestine,” the mosque’s Facebook page said.

All three mosques practice the Shia branch of Islam, the dominant Islamic faith of Hezbollah and their followers in Iran.

Jewish groups called the services “deeply disturbing.”

“Hezbollah is an organization that conducts terrorist operations using cells around the world to strike non-military targets including community centres, aircraft and embassies,” Alex Ryvchin, co-director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told the publication.

“This goes to the heart of public safety and national security and requires strong police action.”

Hezbollah was listed as a terrorist organization in Australia in 2021.

On Sunday, small groups of young men, many masked, were seen at much larger pro-Palestinian rallies in Sydney and Melbourne holding framed portraits of Nasrallah and waving the Hezbollah flag.

Home Secretary Tony Burke slammed protesters for showing “any show of support” for a terrorist organization and threatened to revoke their visas.

“It draws the immediate attention of our security forces,” Burke said.

‘There are stricter checks on whether someone has a visa. “I have made it clear from day one that I will consider refusing and revoking visas for anyone who seeks to stir up discord in Australia.”

Organizers of the Melbourne rally told AAP the group carrying Hezbollah flags was not affiliated with those leading the demonstration.

Muslim community leaders also said the group was not representative of Australia’s Muslim community or the protest, which called on Israel to halt military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, where they are fighting Hezbollah.

“They are definitely a minority. An absolute, tiny minority,” Islamic Council of Victoria President Adel Salman told The Australian.

“For my own experience, my knowledge of the community: there is no support for Hezbollah, no love for Hezbollah. Right now it’s all about supporting the Lebanese people.”

Meanwhile, fighting has intensified in the Middle East, with Israel expected to launch a ground attack on Lebanon to drive out Hezbollah.

Israeli elite commandos are said to be targeting the group’s infrastructure, including weapons sites and control centers, as it tries to recover from the loss of Nasrallah.

“They are targeting key sites built across the border zone,” an Israeli official said The Telegraph.

IDF tanks have massed on the northern border ahead of an expected incursion into Lebanon, despite pressure from Israeli allies to de-escalate immediately.

Hezbollah said its militants are bracing themselves and are “ready” for war as Lebanon prepares to deploy its own army in the south, fearing a collapse into all-out war.

Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets into northern Israel since the war in Gaza broke out last October, in response to the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

But with the attacks driving some 60,000 Israelis from their homes and jobs in northern Israel, Israel has vowed to defeat Hezbollah from southern Lebanon.

In a week of heavy airstrikes, Israel reportedly eliminated dozens of officials linked to Hezbollah by bombing their headquarters and killing Hamas and Iranian officials.

Hamas, which is fighting Israel in the Gaza Strip, announced today that its leader was killed in Lebanon by Israeli airstrikes.

Hamas said its leader in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu al-Amine, was killed today in an attack on the Al-Buss refugee camp in the southern city of Tire – days after Hezbollah’s long-standing leader Nasrallah was killed in Beirut.

The group said al-Amine was killed along with his wife, son and daughter in what it called a “terrorist and criminal killing.”