Tyre, Lebanon ? About 200,000 flag-waving, cheering Hezbollah supporters massed Thursday near the site of the former Israeli military headquarters in south Lebanon to hear their leader pledge to continue fighting until victory.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah marked the sixth anniversary of the Israeli pullout by telling that crowd that while Israel had defeated Arab armies for decades, its withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000 after incessant attacks by Hezbollah had proved to be a turning point.

The pullout shattered the Israeli army’s invincibility, leading to the Palestinian uprising in September 2000 and Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.