Hezbollah has announced it will hold mass funerals in south Lebanon today for 44 fighters killed during more than six weeks of Israel’s assault on Lebanon, AFP reports.

Hezbollah has not given the total number of its fighters killed since Israel last month launched a massive wave of airstrikes and a ground invasion in Lebanon.

But today, it said it will bury 29 fighters in the town of Kfar Sir, returning “a group of blessed souls to the soil of the south”.

It will also bury 15 fighters and one civilian in the village of Qlaileh, some of whom had been temporarily buried elsewhere until the ceasefire made a return south possible.

Shia rites provide for such temporary burials when circumstances prevent a proper funeral or the dead cannot be buried where they wished.