Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese paid tribute to assassinated Christian politician Pierre Gemayel.
The protests turned his funeral in central Beirut Thursday into a display of defiance toward Syria and its Hezbollah allies and reinvigorated supporters of the U.S.-backed government.
Among them is Gemayel's father and a former president, Amin Gemayel, who told the crowd a second "independence uprising" has been launched and won't be stopped.
But the head of the Maronite Church called for unity to save the country. Lebanon's top Shiite politician, a Hezbollah ally, also attended the funeral in an attempt to show national unity.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.