Hezbollah has a military branch and is the sponsor of a number of lesser-known groups, some of which may be little more than fronts for Hezbollah itself. These groups include the Organization of the Oppressed, the Revolutionary Justice Organization, the Organization of Right Against Wrong, and Followers of the Prophet Muhammad.[1][2][3]
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 called for the disarmament of militia[4] with the Taif agreement at the end of the Lebanese Civil War. Hezbollah denounced, and protested against, the resolution.[5][6] The 2006 military conflict with Israel has increased the controversy. Failure to disarm remains a violation of the resolution and agreement according to the Israeli Government.[7]
Most Shias consider Hezbollah's paramilitary a necessary and justified element of resistance, while less than half of the other religious communities support the idea that Hezbollah should keep its weapons after the 2006 Lebanon War.[8] The Lebanese cabinet, under president Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, guidelines state that Hezbollah enjoys the right to "liberate occupied lands."[9] In 2009, a Hezbollah commander, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "[W]e have far more rockets and missiles [now] than we did in 2006."[10]
Introduction
The strength of Hezbollah's forces are disputed, and has been variously estimated as "several thousand"[1] and "several thousand supporters and a few hundred terrorist operatives".[11] In 2006, the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated Hezbollah forces to 600–1,000 active fighters (with 3,000–5,000 available and 10,000 reservists), 10,000–15,000 rockets of the Katyusha, Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 type. They also estimated a stockpile of 30 missiles of the Zelzal type.[12] More recent assessments of Hezbollah's armed strength indicate at least 20,000 fighters and up to 120,000 rockets.
As Haaretz reports Hezbollah is not a small guerrilla group. It is a trained, skilled, well-organized, highly motivated infantry that is equipped with the cream of the crop of modern weaponry from the arsenals of Syria, Iran, Russia, and China, and which is very familiar with the territory on which it is fighting.[13] Hezbollah has also military relations with North Korea, which date back to the 1980s.[14]
Islamic Resistance guerrillas are reckoned to be amongst the most dedicated, motivated and highly trained of their kind. Any Hezbollah member receiving military training is likely to do so at the hands of IRGC [the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], either in southern Lebanon or in camps in Iran. The increasingly sophisticated methods used by IRGC members indicates that they are trained using Israeli and US military manuals; the emphasis of this training is on the tactics of attrition, mobility, intelligence gathering and night-time manoeuvres.[15]
Hezbollah's strength was enhanced by the dispatching of one thousand[16] to fifteen hundred[17] members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the financial backing of Iran. It became the main politico-military force among the Shi'a community in Lebanon and the main arm of what became known later as the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon.[16]
Hezbollah has a military branch known as Al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya ("The Islamic Resistance") and is the possible sponsor of a number of lesser-known militant groups, some of which may be little more than fronts for Hezbollah itself, including the Organization of the Oppressed, the Revolutionary Justice Organization, the Organization of Right Against Wrong, and Followers of the Prophet Muhammad.[1][3]
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 called for the disarmament of militia[4] with the Taif agreement at the end of the Lebanese Civil War. Hezbollah denounced, and protested against, the resolution.[5][6] The 2006 war with Israel has increased the controversy. Failure to disarm remains a violation of the resolution and agreement according to the Israeli Government.[7]
Hezbollah has been accused of committing a number of attacks and kidnappings.[18][19][20] Between 1982 and 1986, in the midst of the Lebanese Civil War, 36 suicide attacks were made in Lebanon against American, French, Lebanese, and Israeli targets by 41 people of different religions and political ideologies, killing 659 people.[21][22] Hezbollah has been accused of some or all of these attacks, but responsibility is disputed, and Hezbollah has denied being involved in any of them.[23][24][25]
Singapore accused Hezbollah of recruiting Singaporeans in a failed 1990s plot to attack U.S. and Israeli ships in the Singapore Straits.[28]
Conflict with Israel
Hezbollah has been involved in several cases of armed conflict with Israel: During the South Lebanon conflict (1985-2000), Hezbollah waged a guerrilla war against Israeli forces occupying Southern Lebanon. It ended with Israeli withdrawal in accordance with 1978's United Nations Security Council Resolution 425.[29] "With the collapse of their supposed allies, the SLA, and the rapid advance of Hezbollah forces, they withdrew suddenly on 24 May 2000 six weeks before the announced 7 July."[30] Hezbollah held a victory parade, and its popularity in Lebanon rose.[31]
On 25 July 1993, following the killing of seven Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, Israel launched Operation Accountability (known in Lebanon as the Seven Day War), during which the IDF carried out their heaviest artillery and air attacks on targets in southern Lebanon since the 1982 Lebanon War. The declared aim of the operation was to eradicate the threat posed by Hezbollah and to force the civilian population north to Beirut so as to put pressure on the Lebanese Government to repress Hezbollah. The fighting ended when an unwritten understanding was agreed to by the warring parties. Apparently, the 1993 understanding provided that Hezbollah combatants would not fire rockets at northern Israel, while Israel would not attack civilians or civilian targets in Lebanon.[32]
In April 1996, the Israeli forces launched Operation Grapes of Wrath, which was intended to wipe out Hezbollah's base in southern Lebanon. Over 100 Lebanese refugees were killed by the shelling of a UN base at Qana, in what the Israeli military said was a mistake.[33] Following several days of negotiations, the two sides signed the Grapes of Wrath Understandings on 26 April 1996. A cease-fire was agreed upon between Israel and Hezbollah, which would be effective on 27 April 1996. Both sides agreed that civilians should not be targeted, which meant that Hezbollah would be allowed to continue its military activities against IDF forces inside Lebanon.[34][35]
On 7 October 2000, three Israeli soldiers – Adi Avitan, Staff Sgt. Benyamin Avraham, and Staff Sgt. Omar Sawaidwere – were abducted by Hezbollah while patrolling the Israeli side of the Blue Line.[36] The soldiers were killed either during the attack or in its immediate aftermath.[37][38]Defense MinisterShaul Mofaz has, however, claimed that Hezbollah abducted the soldiers and then killed them.[39][40] The bodies of the slain soldiers were exchanged for Lebanese prisoners in 2004.[41]
The 2006 Lebanon War was a 34-day conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel. The principal parties were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military. The conflict started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect on 14 August 2006. Hezbollah was responsible for thousands of Katyusha rocket attacks against Israeli civilian towns and cities in northern Israel,[19] in retaliation for Israel's killing of civilians and targeting the Lebanese infrastructure.[43]
The conflict began when Hezbollah militants fired rockets at Israeli border towns as a diversion for an anti-tank missile attack on two armored Humvees patrolling the Israeli side of the border fence, killing three, injuring two, and capturing two Israeli soldiers.[44] According to The Guardian, "In the fighting 1,200 Lebanese and 158 Israelis were killed. Of the dead almost 1,000 Lebanese and 41 Israelis were civilians."[45]
2009 Egypt plot
Allegations of a plot to attack sites in Egypt in 2009 led to tension between the Egyptian government and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has long been an ally of the Ba'ath government of Syria, led by the al-Assad family. Hezbollah has helped the Syrian government in its fight against the Syrian rebels during the Syrian Civil War. In August 2012, the United States sanctioned Hezbollah "for its alleged role in the war".[46] General Secretary Nasrallah denied Hezbollah had been fighting on behalf of the Syrian government, stating in a 12 October 2012 speech that "right from the start the Syrian opposition has been telling the media that Hizbullah sent 3,000 fighters to Syria, which we have denied".[47] However, according to the Lebanese Daily Star newspaper, Nasrallah said in the same speech that Hezbollah fighters helped the Syrian government "retain control of some 23 strategically located villages [in Syria] inhabited by Shiites of Lebanese citizenship". Nasrallah said that Hezbollah fighters have died in Syria doing their "jihadist duties".[48]
In 2012, Hezbollah fighters crossed the border from Lebanon and took over eight villages in the Al-Qusayr District of Syria.[49] On 16–17 February 2013, Syrian opposition groups claimed that Hezbollah, backed by the Syrian military, attacked three neighboring Sunni villages controlled by the Free Syrian Army (FSA). An FSA spokesman said, "Hezbollah's invasion is the first of its kind in terms of organisation, planning and coordination with the Syrian regime's air force". Hezbollah said three Lebanese Shias, "acting in self-defense", were killed in the clashes with the FSA.[49][50] Lebanese security sources said that the three were Hezbollah members.[51]
In response, the FSA allegedly attacked two Hezbollah positions on 21 February; one in Syria and one in Lebanon. Five days later, it said it destroyed a convoy carrying Hezbollah fighters and Syrian officers to Lebanon, killing all the passengers.[52] The leaders of the March 14 alliance and other prominent Lebanese figures called on Hezbollah to end its involvement in Syria and said it is putting Lebanon at risk.[53]
Subhi al-Tufayli, Hezbollah's founder and former leader, said "Hezbollah should not be defending the criminal regime that kills its own people and that has never fired a shot in defense of the Palestinians". He said "those Hezbollah fighters who are killing children and terrorizing people and destroying houses in Syria will go to hell".[54]
The Consultaive Gathering, a group of Shia and Sunni leaders in Baalbek-Hermel, also called on Hezbollah not to "interfere" in Syria. They said "Opening a front against the Syrian people and dragging Lebanon to war with the Syrian people is very dangerous and will have a negative impact on the relations between the two".[51]Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, also called on Hezbollah to end its involvement[53] and claimed that "Hezbollah is fighting inside Syria with orders from Iran".[55]
According to the US, the Assad loyalist militia known as Jaysh al-Sha'bi was created and is maintained by Hezbollah and IRGC's elite Quds Force, both of whom provide it with money, weapons, training and military advisors.[56]
Hezbollah has not revealed its armed strength. It has been estimated by Mustafa Alani, security director at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre, that Hezbollah's military force is made up of about 1,000 full-time Hezbollah members, along with a further 6,000-10,000 volunteers.[57]
Hezbollah possesses the Katyusha-122 rocket, which has a range of 29km (18mi) and carries a 15-kg (33-lb) warhead. Hezbollah also possesses about 100 long-range missiles. They include the Iranian-made Fajr-3 and Fajr-5, the latter with a range of 75km (47mi), enabling it to strike the Israeli port of Haifa, and the Zelzal-1, with an estimated 150km (93mi) range, which can reach Tel Aviv. Fajr-3 missiles have a range of 40km (25mi) and a 45-kg (99-lb) warhead, and Fajr-5 missiles, which extend to 72km (45mi), also hold 45-kg (99-lb) warheads.[57]
For air defense, Hezbollah has anti-aircraft weapons that include the ZU-23 artillery and the man-portable, shoulder-fired SA-7 and SA-18surface-to-air missile (SAM).[60] One of the most effective weapons deployed by Hezbollah has been the C-701anti-ship missile.[61]
During the 2006 Lebanon War, Hezbollah fired 3,970 rockets into Northern Israel in the course of a month, killing 43 Israeli civilians.[62] Hezbollah officials have stated that the group's armaments have recovered fully from the previous war; during the "Divine Victory" rally, held shortly after the cease-fire, Hezbollah's Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah declared that the group has "more than 20,000 rockets available".[63] He spoke in retrospect of the war, saying "Tel Aviv or elsewhere, we were certain that we could reach any corner or spot in occupied Palestine and now we are certain that we can reach them." (sic)[64] Nasrallah has implied that Hezbollah's rocket force became stronger in the months following the 2006 Lebanon War than it had been during the war itself.[65]
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak during IDF Armoured Corp exercises in the Golan Heights that "Hizbullah has gained significant strength in the last couple of years..We are closely following a possible violation [of UNSC Resolution 1701] caused by the transfer of advanced weapons systems from Syria to Hizbullah. The necessary preparations have been made, and regarding all the rest – I always prefer not to talk, rather to take action when the time comes."[66] In August 2008 it was reported that Brigadier-General Muhammad Suleiman of Syria supplied Hizb'allah with advanced SA-8 SAMs for air defence.[67][68] On 6 October 2012, a UAV allegedly operated by Hezbollah from Lebanon was shot down by the Israeli Air Force near Yatir Forest.[69]
Intelligence capabilities
According to Israeli and American sources, Hezbollah has three units charged with intelligence operations.
One unit is responsible for intelligence activities against Israel, primarily by recruiting and running agents in order to gather information about Israeli military bases and other potential targets. This unit and is known to conduct SIGINT operations against IDF communications.[70]
According to Michael Eisenstadt, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Hezbollah also has a unit called Unit 1800 which aids Palestinians engaged in their operations, by providing funding, direction, weapons, and bomb-building instructions.[71]
It is unknown what the third intelligence unit is.
Targeting policy
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Hezbollah condemned Al Qaeda for targeting the civilian World Trade Center, but remained silent on the attack on The Pentagon, neither favoring nor opposing the act.[72][73] In a 2006 interview with the Washington Post, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah condemned violence against American civilians, saying, "[I]f there are American tourists, or intellectuals, doctors, or professors who have nothing to do with this war, they are innocent, even though they are Americans, and it is forbidden. It is not acceptable to harm them."[73]
In June 2002, shortly after the Israeli government launched Operation Defensive Shield, Nasrallah gave a speech in which he defended and praised suicide bombings of Israeli civilians by members of Palestinian groups for "creating a deterrence and equalizing fear." Nasrallah stated that "in occupied Palestine, there is no difference between a soldier and a civilian, for they are all invaders, occupiers and usurpers of the land."[72] Hezbollah has not been involved in any suicide bombing since Israel withdrew from Lebanon.[26][74]
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 called for the disarmament of militia with the Taif agreement at the end of the Lebanese civil war. Hezbollah has denounced this resolution and protested against it. Its refusal to disarm has after the more recent conflict with Israel become controversial. Some still consider it a violation of the resolution and agreement and others now consider it a necessary and justified element of resistance. The official position of the Lebanese government is unclear, with conflicting statements given.
The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted Prime Minister Saniora was saying that, "Hezbollah has created, a 'state within a state,' adding: 'The entire world must help us disarm Hezbollah. But first we need to reach a cease-fire.'. According to a Forbes article, Saniora later denied these remarks, saying he "told the paper that 'the continued presence of Israeli occupation of Lebanese lands in the Chebaa Farms region is what contributes to the presence of Hezbollah weapons. The international community must help us in (getting) an Israeli withdrawal from Chebaa Farms so we can solve the problem of Hezbollah's arms'.[77] Hezbollah denounced.[78]
The former prime minister of Lebanon, Najib Mikati, stated that "in our terminology Hezbollah is not a militia, it is a resistance and we believe there is a difference between resistance and militia".[79]Boutros Harb, a Lebanese lawmaker, spoke against Hezbollah's failure to disarm saying, "We can't have an illegal army at the heart of our state, all weapons must be held by the Lebanese government".[80]
On 5 August 2006, the Prime Minister of Lebanon said that "the continued presence of Israeli occupation of Lebanese lands in the Shebaa Farms region is what contributes to the presence of Hezbollah weapons. The international community must help us in (getting) an Israeli withdrawal from Shebaa Farms so we can solve the problem of Hezbollah's arms".[81]
An attempt made by the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah led to a new wave of violence in Lebanon at the first decade of May 2008. The militants belonging to Hezbollah and its allies have blocked Beirut airport as well as main city streets, paralyzing the life in the capital. On 8 May 2008, gun battles erupted between Hezbollah supporters and pro-government loyalists, while the leader of the organization called the government's decision "a declaration of war".[82] Hezbollah took control of Western Beirut and after expelling pro-government militias from the city and than handed it over to the Lebanese Army, later they also attempted to clear out Mount Lebanon of pro-government forces but failed due to heavy resistance, mainly from armed supporters of the Progressive Socialist Party.
Ammonium nitrate storage
Die Welt reported, according to the intelligence information, that Hezbollah received a total of 270 tons of ammonium nitrate on July 16, 2013, delivered from Iran to Lebanon. On October 23 of the same year, another 270 tons of ammonium nitrate were delivered, in addition to a third delivery, which made the three deliveries equal to a quantity of 630 to 670 tons of ammonium nitrate. The second delivery was transported by plane, probably by Mahan Air, while the other deliveries were made by sea or land, for example across the Syrian border. Mohammad Qasir who has been responsible for Hezbollah's logistics for 20 years was also responsible for paying for the ammonium nitrate deliveries.[83]
On 16 February 2016, General Secretary Nasrallah threatened that "some rockets are enough from us in addition to the ammonia containers in Haifa port, and their result will be that of a nuclear bomb in an area inhabited by 800,000 people, killing tens of thousands of them".[84]
Hezbollah was accused by their Lebanese adversaries that ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut belonged to them, which later caused the Beirut explosion on 4 August 2020.[85]
In September 2020, the U.S. state department's counterterrorism coordinator, Nathan Sales, mentioned in a video appearance at the American Jewish Committee that: "I can reveal that such [Hezbollah weapons] caches have been moved through Belgium to France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. I can also reveal that significant ammonium nitrate caches have been discovered or destroyed in France, Greece, and Italy".[86]
Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. Its armed strength was assessed to be equivalent to that of a medium-sized army in 2016.
Hassan Nasrallah was a Lebanese cleric and politician who served as the third secretary-general of Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political party and militia, from 1992 until his assassination in 2024.
Operation Grapes of Wrath, known in Lebanon as the April Aggression, was a seventeen-day campaign of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) against Hezbollah in 1996 which attempted to end the Iran-backed group's rocket attacks on northern Israeli civilian centres by forcing the group north of the Litani River, out of easy range of these civilian centres. Prior to the operation, Hezbollah had launched 151 rockets from Lebanon into Israel, killing two Israeli civilians and seriously wounding 24 other Israeli civilians.
On July 25, 1993, Israeli forces launched a week-long attack against Lebanon named Operation Accountability in Israel and the Seven-Day War in Lebanon. Israel specified three purposes to the operation, to strike directly at Hezbollah, to make it difficult for Hezbollah to use southern Lebanon as a base for striking Israel, and to displace Lebanese and Palestinian civilians in the hopes of pressuring the Lebanese government to intervene against Hezbollah. The affected civilian population included both Lebanese and Palestinian people.
This is a timeline of events related to the 2006 Lebanon War.
Military operations of the 2006 Lebanon War refer to armed engagements initiated by Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah during the 2006 conflict.
The Israeli–Lebanese conflict, or the South Lebanon conflict, is a long-running conflict involving Israel, Lebanon-based paramilitary groups, and sometimes Syria. The conflict peaked during the Lebanese Civil War. In response to Palestinian attacks from Lebanon, Israel invaded the country in 1978 and again in 1982. After this it occupied southern Lebanon until 2000, while fighting a guerrilla conflict against Shia paramilitaries. After Israel's withdrawal, Hezbollah attacks sparked the 2006 Lebanon War. A new period of conflict began in 2023, leading to the 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
The South Lebanon conflict was an armed conflict that took place in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon from 1982 or 1985 until Israel's withdrawal in 2000. Hezbollah, along with other Shia Muslim and left-wing guerrillas, fought against Israel and its ally, the Catholic Christian-dominated South Lebanon Army (SLA). The SLA was supported militarily and logistically by the Israel Defense Forces and operated under the jurisdiction of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon provisional administration, which succeeded the earlier Israeli-backed Free Lebanon State. Israel officially names the conflict the Security Zone in Lebanon Campaign and deems it to have begun on 30 September 1982, after the end of its "Operation Peace for Galilee". It can also be seen as an extension of the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990).
Dahieh is a predominantly Shia Muslim suburb in the south of Beirut, in the Baabda District of Lebanon. It has a minority of Sunni Muslims, Christians, and a Palestinian refugee camp with 20,000 inhabitants. It is a residential and commercial area with malls, stores and souks, and comprises several towns and municipalities, including Ghobeiry, Haret Hreik, Bourj el-Barajneh, Ouzai, and Hay El-Saloum. It is north of Rafic Hariri International Airport, and the M51 freeway that links Beirut to the airport passes through it.
Foreign involvement in the 2006 Lebanon War refers to the supply of military aid to combatants during the course of the 2006 Lebanon War, which has been an important aspect of both the hostilities and the diplomatic wrangling surrounding them, including figuring prominently into UN Security Council resolutions on the topic.
Hezbollah originated within the Shiite block of Lebanese society. According to the CIA World Factbook estimate in 2022, Shiites comprise 31.2 percent of Lebanon's population, predominating in three areas of Lebanon: Southern Lebanon, Beirut and its environs (Dahieh), and the northern Beqaa valley region.
During the 2006 Lebanon War, Operation Sharp and Smooth, also known as the Baalbek operation, was an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) raid on a hospital in the city of Baalbek, which was being used as a Hezbollah headquarters, and a neighbourhood of the city. The precise objectives of the raid remain classified, but it is known that a number of Lebanese, including Hezbollah and armed Lebanese Communist Party members, were killed, and five Lebanese civilians were arrested and detained in Israel as suspected Hezbollah members, but released after three weeks. The casualty figures for the raid vary. According to inquiries by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Lebanese authorities 16 Lebanese residents, most of them civilians, were killed. According to IDF ten Hezbollah militants were killed in the attack.
Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, has an exceptionally strong military wing, thought to be stronger than the Lebanese Army and equivalent to the armed strength of a medium-sized army. A hybrid force, the group maintains "robust conventional and unconventional military capabilities", and is generally considered to be the most powerful non-state actor in the world.
The 2006 Lebanon War was a 34-day armed conflict in Lebanon, fought between Hezbollah and Israel. The war started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. It marked the third Israeli invasion into Lebanon since 1978.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 is a resolution that was intended to resolve the 2006 Lebanon War. The resolution calls for a full cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the withdrawal of Hezbollah and other forces from Lebanon south of the Litani, the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed groups, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, with no armed forces other than UNIFIL and Lebanese military south of the Litani River, which flows about 29 km (18 mi) north of the border. It emphasizes Lebanon's need to fully exert government control and calls for efforts to address the unconditional release of abducted Israeli soldiers.
The 2000–2006 Shebaa Farms conflict was a low-level border conflict between Israel and Hezbollah for control of Shebaa Farms, a disputed territory located on the Golan Heights–Lebanon border. Fighting between the two sides primarily consisted of Hezbollah rocket and mortar attacks on Israel and Israeli artillery barrages and airstrikes on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Clashes began a few months after the 2000 Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, which Hezbollah viewed as incomplete due to the presence of the Israel Defense Forces in Shebaa Farms. The conflict culminated in the 2006 Lebanon War; Israel retains control over the territory.
During the 2006 Lebanon War, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and United Nations officials accused both Hezbollah and Israel of violating international humanitarian law. These have included allegations of intentional attacks on civilian populations or infrastructure, disproportionate or indiscriminate attacks, the use of human shields, and the use of prohibited weapons.
The 2005 Hezbollah cross-border raid was a failed attempt by Hezbollah to abduct Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers. It was the largest operation of this type mounted prior to the 2006 Lebanon War.
The following lists some remarkable events that happened in 2014 in Lebanon on a monthly basis.
Hezbollah involvement in the Syrian civil war has been substantial since the beginning of armed insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war in 2011, and evolved into active support for Syrian government forces and troop deployment from 2012 onwards. By 2014, Hezbollah was deployed across Syria. Hezbollah has also been very active in preventing Al-Nusra Front and Islamic State penetration into Lebanon, being one of the most active forces in the Syrian civil war spillover in Lebanon.
1 2 Westcott, Kathryn (4 April 2002). "Who are Hezbollah". BBC News. Archived from the original on 18 October 2006. Retrieved 11 August 2006.
1 2 "Hezbollah has no intention to disarm". Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (Israeli). 7 September 2005. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2007.
↑ Pardo, Ramon Pacheco (February 2011). "Beyond Iran"(PDF). The Majalla. 1561: 12–14. Archived from the original(PDF) on 15 July 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
↑ Hamzeh, A. N. (1993). "Lebanon's Hizbullah: From Islamic revolution to parliamentary accommodation". Third World Quarterly. 14 (2): 321–337. doi:10.1080/01436599308420327.
↑ Cobban, Helena (1 April 2005) "Hizbullah’s New Face"Archived 4 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine . Boston Review. Retrieved 2 February 2007. Originally published in the April/May 2005 issue of Boston Review.
↑ Hezbollah's condemnation of murder of civilians in Egypt and Algeria is described in Amal Saad-Ghorayeb (2001). Hizbullah: Politics and Religion. Pluto Press. p.101. ISBN0745317936.
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