Moving behind the shadows was another nation— Iran, specifically, its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp, which snuck into Lebanon’s Bekaa valley and created a brand-new monster far more powerful than Palestinian militants and whose guns were trained exclusively at Israel and the West. This was an armed group called Hezbollah. The longer Israel would stay, the stronger Hezbollah would get. And Israel stayed for 18 years. Today, Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy group and is known to be one of the most powerful non-state actors in the world, running a state within a state and constantly keeping the Israeli security establishment up at night.
On Sunday, the world woke up to the news that more than 100 Israeli jets had attacked Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. Israel called this a pre-emptive action to thwart Hezbollah’s plans to attack Israel. It said that it had precise intel that Hezbollah was planning something big. Hezbollah hit back immediately with a barrage of Katyusha rockets, over 320 of them, targeting 11 Israeli bases and barracks including Iron Dome installations. Israel then declared a 48-hour nationwide emergency. Three Hezbollah fighters were killed on the Lebanese side and one Israeli soldier on the Israeli side. But the escalations halted as quickly as they began as Hezbollah called it a day— saying that its attack was complete.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire every now and then for decades. The war in Gaza is the latest reason for Hezbollah to fire its rockets at Israel. It wants a ceasefire and until that happens, Hezbollah will not stop. But unlike Hamas, which Israel has vowed to obliterate, Hezbollah is a much more difficult target.
Hezbollah is a Shia militant group, designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US and several other nations. It is based in Lebanon to the north of Israel and has conducted several terror attacks in the region. It was behind the 1983 suicide bombing of the US embassy in Beirut, killing dozens. It has a large arsenal of weapons and rockets. Some 20,000 to 100,000 fighters. And allies in the form of Iran and Syria, making it stronger than the Lebanese Army itself.
As per its manifesto, it pledges fealty to Iran, is committed to the destruction of Israel and wants the removal of Western powers from the region. And all of this was not possible without local support. Hezbollah had driven Israel out by 2000, and saw a spike in public approval. Note that its name ‘Hizb-Allah’ literally means “the party of God.” It wields tremendous influence over the country’s politics, bolstered by the 31 per cent Shia Muslim population. Its popularity has only grown because of its support for the Sunni Muslim group Hamas, making it a favourite of the Sunni groups as well. It has parliamentarians and ministers in the Lebanese government, and essentially runs the show in Beirut. Hezbollah runs several social services, media outlets, schools and hospitals bolstering its political standing even more at a time when people see a leadership crisis in Beirut. This is why it’s called a state within a state.
So, it has local support, massive firepower and an army, but no air force or navy—almost like Hamas in Gaza. However, its footprint on the Lebanese map explains its power. Hezbollah’s strongholds are in the northeast, the Bekaa Valley— where it all started, the south of Beirut— where its political leadership is and southern Lebanon, where the main launchpads against Israel remain seated.
Geographically, these regions are discontiguous, but they all have a crucial role to play in Hezbollah’s operations. In the Bekaa Valley, there are training camps for fighters. It’s also where Hezbollah started off. In South Beirut, which is a coastal city along the Mediterranean Sea, politics and logistics are taken care of. And in Southern Lebanon, which is a poor suburban region, the bulk of Hezbollah’s fighters and rocket launchers are based. But the weapons arsenal is spread across the country in secret locations including underground ones. It would be difficult to defeat Hezbollah without running over the entirety of Lebanon.
But that’s not it. Even if Israel were to decide to take on southern Lebanon first, like it did against the PLO in 1982, it wouldn’t have the same experience. Over the years, Hezbollah has extensively fortified this part of the country. It has a large number of rockets, long-range missiles and drones in underground facilities. And that’s not even its greatest leverage. Like its patron, Iran, Hezbollah is sitting on rugged, mountainous terrain and is using it to its advantage. It has trained in guerrilla warfare and its underground bunkers, bases, tunnels and caves, all built in the mountains are simply too difficult to bomb with precision. Obviously, a major purpose of Hezbollah was to never let an Israeli invasion happen again.
But how did it amass all this military strength? Lebanon is not exactly an oil-producing country so where did the money come from? Short answer— Iran. Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, says that Iran is the source of all of Hezbollah’s arms and funds. He wants the group’s supporters to know that none of the security and social services would be possible without Iran. Hezbollah is part of Iran’s Axis of Resistance and is the most potent group connected both in terms of religion and ideology with Tehran. It’s essentially an extension of the IRGC.
But Iran couldn’t do it alone. It has had logistical access from Iraq and Syria for decades. When the Syrian civil war took off, Hezbollah supported Bashar Al Assad’s regime and its military got a major boost as a result. In fact, it built an arsenal of weapons and tanks in Syria cementing this collaboration further. Syria has an interest in keeping Hezbollah around—Assad is an ally of Iran, and antagonistic towards Israel which still occupies the Syrian territory of Golan Heights. Hezbollah enjoys regional support and geostrategic advantages far greater than Hamas. And although its military strength is not anywhere close to Israel’s, it is staring down at Israel with a natural advantage. It threatens to overwhelm Israel’s Iron Dome systems with its large rocket arsenal and it can particularly sting in the event of a war with Iran.
This does not mean that it’s invincible. Hezbollah rules with an iron hand and is vulnerable to public criticism. It was implicated in the killing of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in a suicide bombing. It dragged Lebanon into a war with Israel in 2006 leading to massive civilian casualties. And it has time and again played with fire on behalf of Iran and Palestine and not everyone in the Muslim population of Lebanon approves of that. Moreover, Israel has the support of the US, which may intervene militarily, especially if there is a war with Iran. For Iran, it is more important for Hezbollah to be seated firmly, with its rocket launchers aimed at Israel as a deterrent rather than getting into an all-out war. Its current role is more defensive than offensive. But it poses an existential threat to northern Israel and is expected to stick around longer than any other crown jewel of Iran’s Axis of Resistance.
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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