Interim PM Najib Mikati’s office says the official mourning would start on Monday, with flags to fly at half-mast on public buildings.Lebanon has announced three days of mourning for Hassan Nasrallah after an Israeli air strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed the longtime Hezbollah leader.
In a statement on Saturday, interim Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s office said the official mourning would start on Monday, with flags to fly at half-mast on public buildings.
Public offices will also close on the day of Nasrallah’s funeral, the statement added. Hezbollah has yet to announce the date for the funeral.
Mikati also said his country was under threat following Nasrallah’s killing as he denounced Friday’s air attacks that also killed Lebanese civilians in the Dahiyeh neighbourhood of Beirut.
In a televised statement, Mikati called for the Lebanese people to “stand united in the face of aggression” as the country remains on the brink of a humanitarian and economic crisis.
He was speaking at an emergency cabinet meeting that he convened upon returning from the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Mikati did not mention Nasrallah in his address, but his office later published the decision to hold three days of national mourning.
Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than three decades, is by far the most powerful target to be killed by Israel in weeks of intensified fighting with Hezbollah.
According to the UN, more than 50,000 people have fled Lebanon for Syria, as Israel’s attacks on Leb …