Hezbollah held a funeral on Monday for its top military chief and other members of the militant group a day after a deadly Israeli strike on south Beirut, while Iran's Revolutionary Guards urged revenge.

Haytham Ali Tabatabai is the most senior commander from the Iran-backed group to be killed by Israel since a November 2024 ceasefire sought to end more than a year of hostilities between the two sides.

A source close to Hezbollah has said there were "two opinions within the group -- those who wish to respond to the assassination of Hezbollah's top military chief in an Israeli strike on south Beirut and those who want to refrain from doing so.

The source told AFP on condition of anonymity that the leadership tends to adopt "the utmost forms of diplomacy at the present stage".

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps called Monday for "revenge" for the killing in an Israeli air strike on Beirut the previous day of Hezbollah's top military commander Haytham Ali Tabatabai.

"The right of the Axis of Resistance and Lebanese Hezbollah to avenge the blood of the brave fighters of Islam is unquestionable," the IRGC, Hezbollah's main military and financial backer, said in a statement.

Charbel Matar says a Lebanese saint saved his life when he was a child. Now, he is among pilgrims of all faiths who visit Saint Charbel's tomb, soon to be graced by Pope Leo XIV.

"My family and I have great faith in Saint Charbel and always visit him," said Matar, 69, at the Saint Maron Monastery in Annaya in the mountains of north Lebanon.

Mireille Khoury lit a candle next to a portrait of her late son, Elias, surrounded by images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, just as she does every evening when she returns to her Beirut apartment after work.

Elias was only 15 when he died in the August 2020 explosion at the Beirut port that blasted through surrounding neighborhoods in the Lebanese capital. Since then Khoury has been among the families who have convened monthly protests calling for justice for the 218 people killed when hundreds of tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate detonated.

Pope Leo XIV embarks on his debut overseas trip Thursday, travelling to Turkey and Lebanon to promote Christian unity and urge peace efforts amid heightened tensions in the Middle East.

Israel killed Hezbollah's military chief in a strike on Beirut on Sunday, the Israeli military and the militant group said, hitting an apartment building and killing five people according to Lebanese authorities.

Haytham Ali Tabatabai, Hezbollah's top military chief whom Israel killed on Sunday, had taken the role after the group's senior leaders died in the most recent war with Israel.

He is the most important Hezbollah figure to have been killed since a November 2024 ceasefire sought to end over a year of hostilities between the militant group and Israel, including two months of full-blown war.

Hezbollah confirmed that senior leader Haytham Ali Tabtabai was killed in Israel's strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday.

Israel said it carried out an air strike Sunday targeting Hezbollah's chief of staff in Beirut's southern suburbs, hitting an apartment building in an operation which Hezbollah said crossed another red line.