Al Jazeera

By Daniel Khalili-Tari

    A two-day public farewell ceremony for Iran’s slain former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has come to a close, with millions expected to take part in a funeral procession scheduled in Tehran today.

    Israeli forces launch air strikes on Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, despite signing a US-brokered agreement with Lebanon last month to end hostilities.

    Israeli forces also launch drone attacks on Gaza, killing at least two people, as Palestinians stage protests outside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, demanding Israel fulfil commitments to allow medical evacuations.

    A four-month-old Palestinian boy has died in the occupied West Bank after Israeli forces at a military checkpoint west of Ramallah prevented his transfer to a hospital.

17 Updates

Crowds gather in Tehran for Khamenei’s funeral procession

    The Tasnim news agency has published footage of huge crowds gathering at Tehran’s Revolution Square ahead of the funeral for the slain supreme leader.

Translation: Revolution Square and Valiasr Crossroads in Tehran are filled with crowds for the funeral procession of the martyred Imam

    About 260 people from 74 families in Majdal Zoun have been sheltering together in an empty school in Tyre for months, watching their village from the waterfront as Israeli forces remain in control.

    With the school now reclaiming its building, the community faces a further dispersal.

    Village mayor says social media is helping to keep families connected as they relocate separately, uncertain when or whether they can return.

What is the religious and political messaging behind Khamenei’s funeral

By Maziar Motamedi

Reporting from Tehran, Iran

    A week of ceremonies for the funeral of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has adopted heavy symbolism to promote pro-government religious and political messages.

    From carefully curated state rhetoric to organised demonstrations, a barrage of messaging is being used to create a narrative of unity among supporters of the Iranian government, which has been in power since the 1979 revolution.

    Khamenei’s funeral began with three days of mourning in Tehran, before a procession weaves between cities in Iran and Iraq, embedded with heavy symbolism about the former supreme leader’s life and Shia Islam in general.

    Khamenei was supreme leader from 1989 until his death in a US-Israeli air strike on February 28, with his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, taking over as head of state in March.

    Iranian authorities have emphasised the “martyrdom” of Khamenei in official messaging and promoted the idea that grief for his death is a national duty.

    “We must rise”, the official slogan being used for ceremonies, can be seen on banners and images displayed by mourners in Iran. For Arabic-language and international audiences, the authorities have selected the Arabic equivalent of “Rise for God”. Both phrases are based on a Quranic verse that calls on Muslims to stand up for a divine cause.

Why are Palestinians in Gaza protesting over medical evacuations

    As we’ve been reporting, Palestinian protesters gathered outside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to demand that Israel allow evacuations for those who need urgent medical treatment abroad.

    Let’s take a closer look at the situation on the ground.

    Under the US-brokered “ceasefire” agreement, about 21,000 Palestinians, including patients and their companions, should have been allowed to leave Gaza for medical care.

    But only 7,500 people have been allowed to leave so far.

    According to the World Health Organization, more than 18,500 Palestinians, including about 4,000 children, require urgent medical evacuation for life-saving treatment that is currently unavailable in Gaza.

    Some 1,200 Palestinians have died while waiting for evacuation since Israel seized the Rafah crossing in May 2024, according to health authorities in Gaza.

    Israeli forces destroyed 94 percent of Gaza’s hospitals during their genocidal war on the Strip, and killed at least 1,772 healthcare workers since October 2023.

Houthi official says US, Israel assassinated Khamenei over his support for Palestine

    Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a spokesman for Yemen’s Houthis, has told Iranian media that the US and Israel killed Iran’s supreme leader because of his efforts to support the liberation of Palestine.

    Al-Bukhaiti described Khamenei as a symbol of resistance and freedom for nations seeking independence from the US and Israel’s domination, according to Iran’s Press TV.

    “His intellectual and political vision across the Islamic world, together with his efforts to liberate Palestine, were among the main reasons the West became determined to assassinate him,” al-Bukhaiti said.

    His family says his health has sharply deteriorated, while Palestinian prisoner authorities say he has been tortured in Israeli detention.

Who is Dr Hussam Abu Safia

    As we’ve been reporting, an Israeli rights group is warning that the life of Dr Hussam Abu Safia, who was abducted from Gaza in 2024, is in “grave danger”.

    Here’s what we know:

    Abu Safia’s lawyer, Nasser Odeh, visited his client at the underground Rakefet interrogation facility in Nitzan Prison last week and reported a severe deterioration in his health “to the point of tangible danger to his life”, according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI).

    The group said lawyer Odeh documented severe injuries – including fresh bruises and wounds on Abu Safia’s head, eyes, ears and neck – as well as difficulty breathing and repeated loss of consciousness.

    The wounds were so severe that Odeh struggled to recognise the doctor, the group said.

    In June, Israel’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Abu Safia and ordered the doctor to remain in detention under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law without criminal charge.

    The director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, who is 53 years old, has endured multiple stints in solitary confinement and is “suffering from critical health conditions”, according to his family. But Israeli authorities have denied him medical care.

    He was abducted from the Kamal Adwan Hospital on December 27, 2024, after he had led the hospital through an 85-day siege by Israeli troops.

    During the offensive, Israeli forces cut off supplies of food and water to the Palestinians in the area, while launching air attacks and shelling. Hundreds of civilians were killed, including Abu Safia’s son, Ibrahim, who died in a drone attack at the gate of the hospital.

Iran’s Ghalibaf calls MoU an ‘achievement for the axis of resistance’

    Iran’s Parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has met the vice chairman of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mohammed Al-Nuaimi, and hailed the MoU signed with the US as an achievement for Tehran’s “axis of resistance”.

    “The United States and Israel were forced to practically recognise Iran’s allies in the axis of resistance, and this is one of the achievements of this memorandum,” Ghalibaf said, according to Iranian media.

    Iran’s regional network of armed groups, known as the “axis of resistance”, includes Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, and armed groups in Iraq.

    Ghalibaf described the MoU as a “defeat for the United States and an achievement for the axis of resistance, both militarily and politically”. He also stressed that strong diplomacy depends on full military preparedness, warning that the US and Israel would “resort to war” if they perceived any weakness by Iran.

The important question is ‘whether Hezbollah will respond’

Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

    Israel’s military activity in Lebanon is continuing, despite the fact that there is a ceasefire in effect.

    In fact, there are two ceasefires supposedly in effect: one guaranteed by the framework agreement signed between Lebanon and Israel, as a result of the direct negotiations mediated by Washington, and, of course, the other by the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the US and Iran. A ceasefire in Lebanon is the very first term of that MoU.

    Now, the chief of staff of the Israeli military [Eyal Zamir] was inside southern Lebanon earlier on Sunday, visiting the Beaufort Castle area. And he said this activity is within what they understand to be the terms of the framework agreement.

    So it’s kind of a questionable ceasefire.

    But the actual question is not whether the Israeli military activity will continue, because that seems quite certain, but whether Hezbollah will respond. Till this point, their activity has been fairly restrained. There’ve been a couple of cases of individual fighters who’ve come out of homes and tried to stage attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, but there’s been nothing significant on an organisational level.

    So the question is whether this Israeli military activity will escalate and whether we will eventually see a Hezbollah response.