TYRE, Lebanon (AP) -- 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.

"We have entered the phase of victory," he told the roaring crowd of Shiite Muslim men, women and children. "After May 25, there would be no more 'nakba' and no more 'naksa,'" Nasrallah said.

"Nakba," or catastrophe, is the term Arabs use for the defeat of 1948 that led to the creation of Israel and an exodus of Palestinians; and "naksa," or setback, is the term for the defeat in 1967, when Arabs lost the West Bank, east Jerusalem, Gaza and the Golan Heights.

"There will only be resistance, liberation and victory," Nasrallah said.

The rally in a dusty yard at the entrance to the southern port of Tyre came as Hezbollah faced pressure to disarm from Lebanese and the UN Security Council.

But Nasrallah had no time for such thoughts. Referring to his guerrillas as Lebanon's "resistance," he said Hezbollah would go on fighting Israel until it left the disputed border territory of Chebaa Farms and released four Lebanese detainees.

"We pledge to the Lebanese that the resistance will continue until the liberation of our land and bring back our prisoners," the bearded cleric said.

Many supporters carried pictures of Nasrallah and waved the yellow flag of Hezbollah. There were also flags of Iran, which backs Hezbollah, and the Palestinians. The people had walked several miles to get to the site. A 16-year-old student, Kassem Haidar, said he came "out of love for the resistance."

Hezbollah once enjoyed widespread support in Lebanon for its military campaign against Israel. Hezbollah led the guerrilla war that forced Israel to end its 18-year occupation of a border zone in southern Lebanon on May 24, 2000.

But the support has subsequently faded, and particularly with the debate over whether Hezbollah should be allowed to carry arms even after Syria, another backer of the group, was forced to withdraw its army from Lebanon.

May 25 has been celebrated as "Liberation Day" for the past four years, but this year the government, now led by anti-Syrian factions, decided to cancel the national holiday. Schools and government offices were open Thursday in Beirut and other cities, although classes were canceled in those parts of south Lebanon formerly under Israeli occupation.

Some Lebanese politicians opposed to Syrian have accused Hezbollah of using its arms to serve Syrian and Iranian interests -- a charge Hezbollah denies. The UN Security Council has said the group must be disarmed so that the government's authority is unchallenged throughout the country.

Hezbollah has refused to give up its weapons. Nasrallah has vowed to fight anyone who tries to disarm his group.

The rally was held about 50 yards from the site of a building housing the Israeli military headquarters that was attacked by a suicide bomber in 1982.

The attack, five months after Israel invaded Lebanon, killed 75 people, most of them Israeli soldiers. It was the first of a series of suicide attacks against the Israel army.