Amid Hamas’ unprecedented assault and Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza, Lebanon’s Hezbollah targeted Israeli military positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms earlier this week. Hezbollah said it had acted “in solidarity” with the Palestinian people in the wake of the ongoing war. Israel responded to Hezbollah’s assault by launching heavy artillery fire into southern Lebanon. Hezbollah’s entry may open another front in the Israel-Hamas war.
What is Hezbollah? History of the armed group
Hezbollah is a Shi’ite group backed by Iran. It emerged from a shadowy faction which was created during the 1975-90 civil war in Lebanon. Since its inception by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982, Hezbollah has since grown into a heavily armed force that carries big influence in Lebanon. However, it is deemed as a terrorist outfit by governments including the United States.
Hezbollah was founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to fight Israeli forces invading Lebanon and in order to export its Islamic Revolution. The group recruited Lebanese Shi’ite Muslims. It shares the Shi’ite Islamist ideology of Tehran. The outfit retained its weapons after the Lebanese civil war concluded to battle Israeli forces which had occupied the predominantly Shi’ite south. Israel withdrew from the position in 2000 after years of guerrilla warfare.
Hezbollah’s growing military prowess was on full display during the five-week war in 2006 when it launched thousands of rockets into Israel. Deployment in Syria in 2012 to help President Bashar al-Assad crush Sunni rebels further amplified Hezbollah’s power. The outfit has precision rockets in its arsenal and said that it had 100,000 men in its ranks in 2021. The outfit is supported by Iran with ammo and money. Iran has spent hundreds of millions of dollars per year to support Hezbollah, according to US estimates.
Hezbollah also is deeply tied to other groups in the region bagged by Iran including Hamas and fellow Palestinian outfit Islamic Jihad. It has massive support in Lebanon where a large group of Shi’ites see it as the country’s protector from Israel. Political parties in Lebanon that oppose Hezbollah allege the group has unilaterally taken Lebanon into conflicts. There are Hezbollah ministers in the government and legislators in parliament. Hezbollah gained majority in the Lebanon parliament in 2018 but lost it in 2022. However, it still commands a considerable sway.
Hezbollah is accused of launching suicide attacks on Western embassies, targeting and kidnapping Westerners in the 1980s. The US accuses it of a suicide bombing that destroyed US Marine headquarters in Beirut in 1983 and killed 241 servicemen, as well as another suicide bombing the same year targetting the US embassy. Argentina holds Hezbollah and Iran responsible for two attacks: a 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires which killed 85 people and a 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people.
(Inputs from Reuters)
