What Is Hezbollah? How Formidable Is The Lebanese Group?
One of the world’s most powerful non-state actors, Hizballah is a Lebanon-based Shiite Muslim political militant group with arms and ammunition heavier than the Lebanese army.
Translating as ‘Party of God’ in Arabic, Hezbollah, was formed in 1982 amid the Lebanese civil war, is widely believed to be an Iran-backed group formed to resist the Israeli occupation in the region, including southern Lebanon. One of Israel’s biggest threats in the area, the Zionist regime considers the Hezbollah its powerful foe that can hit any targets in its territory.
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With its formation, Hezbollah aimed to get Israel out of Lebanon. In 2000, after nearly two decades of fighting, Israel withdrew unilaterally from southern Lebanon. With this, Hezbollah declared itself the first Arab army ever to force Israel to cede control of territory it took during the 1967 war. The Zionist regime continues to occupy the Palestinian territories and Syria’s Golan Heights that it took during the 1967 War.
Hezbollah claims the 2006 war with Israel was a success for the group as it withstood the mighty Israel’s invasion when a conflict broke out between the two. With all the precedence, the Hezbollah is analysed as the one that can seriously inflict harm on Israel in the event of a war.
According to a report by the news agency Routers, Hezbollah possesses over 150,000 missiles and rockets. The agency cited the World Factbook of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for the data. The group has both guided and unguided rockets in its missile arsenal.
For defense, it has anti-aircraft missiles, which it used to down Israeli drones several times during the conflict. The group also boasts anti-ship missiles. In 2006, the anti-ship missiles hit an Israeli warship 16 km (10 miles) off the coast, killing four Israeli personnel and destroying the vessel.
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Notably, since 2006, the Hezbollah has made tremendous progress in its arsenal, and group’s chief Nasrallah has said that the biggest expansion in its arms was made after 2006. Hezbollah possesses Iranian models, such as Raad (Arabic for Thunder), Fajr (Dawn), and Zilzal (Earthquake) rockets, which have a more powerful payload and longer range than Katyushas.
Though separate entities with one Shiite and another Sunni group, Hezbollah shares a common objective of fighting Israel’s occupation in the region, and the group supported the Palestinian resistance movement when they carried out the October 7th attack in Israel, saying it was a decisive response. In 2021, Hassan Nasrallah said the group has a total of 100,000 fighters.
Hezbollah’s major supplier of arms is said to be the Islamic Republic of Iran, as many of the weapons used by the groups were made by Iran, Russia, and China.
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Within Lebanon, the group wields significant political influence and is said to be acting as a state within a state. It has ministers and lawmakers in the government. Following Saudi-aligned Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s killing in 2005, the group’s political prominence rose further in the country’s administrative landscape.
As part of its organisational objectives, the Hezbollah, in its manifesto, emphasised that its major aim is to defeat Israel and expel the Western colonialist entities from the region.
However, the latest escalation has pushed both sides to the brink of a potential war, and it is to see what is next in the already volatile West Asia.
