BEIRUT, Oct 16 – Lebanon’s Hezbollah has exchanged fire with Israel across the border for days in the deadliest escalation since they fought a major war in 2006, threatening to widen the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
Backed by Iran, Hezbollah says it is ready to help when the time comes in the war between Israel and Hamas, which is also backed by Tehran. Sources said last week that Hezbollah’s attacks so far had been designed to contain and avoid another major war.
Israel’s defense minister said on October 15 that Israel is not interested in waging war in its northern part, and that if Hezbollah holds back then Israel will also keep the situation along the border as it is.
WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF HIZBOLLAH?
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards founded Hezbollah in 1982, in the midst of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war. It was part of Iran’s efforts to export the 1979 Islamic Revolution across the region and fight Israeli forces after their 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Sharing Tehran’s Shia Islamic ideology, Hezbollah recruited Lebanese Shia Muslims.
The group has risen from a dark clan to an armed force with great power over the Lebanese state. The United States, some Western governments and others consider it a terrorist organization.
HOW MUCH IS THE POWER OF THE HIZBOLLAH ARMY?
While other groups disarmed after Lebanon’s civil war, Hezbollah kept its weapons to fight Israeli forces occupying the country’s predominantly Shiite south. Years of guerrilla warfare led Israel to withdraw in 2000.
Lebanese protesters carry Hezbollah flags in solidarity with the Palestinian people.dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
Hezbollah demonstrated its military progress in 2006 during a five-week war with Israel, which erupted after it crossed into Israel, kidnapping two soldiers and killing another.
Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into Israel during the conflict, in which 1,200 people were killed in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 158 Israelis were killed, mostly soldiers.
Hezbollah’s military power grew after it was deployed to Syria, another Iranian ally in the region, to help President Bashar al-Assad fight predominantly Sunni Muslim rebels.
Hezbollah has weapons including precision rockets and drones, and says it can attack all parts of Israel. In 2021, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group had 100,000 fighters.
Lebanese protesters gather in the streets as fighting between Israeli forces and the Palestinian militant group Hamas continues. dpa alliance/image via Getty Images
Iran provides arms and money to Hezbollah. The United States estimates that Iran has provided it with hundreds of millions of dollars annually in recent years.
WHAT IS HIS ROLE IN THE ISRAEL-HAMAS CONFLICT SO FAR?
Hezbollah has deep ties to Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian faction backed by Iran.
Hezbollah said it was “in direct contact with the Palestinian resistance leadership” on October 7, the day Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack from Gaza into Israel, killing 1,300 people. In Israel’s intensive airstrikes on Gaza in response, more than 2,750 people have been killed.
Since October 7, Hezbollah has exchanged cross-border fire with Israel several times. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both of which have a presence in Lebanon, have launched attacks on Israel from Lebanon for the first time, including the October 10 cross-border infiltration into Israel by Islamic Jihad.
A woman holds a sign showing a US flag defaced by boot prints before Palestinian and Hezbollah flags during an anti-Israel rally.AFP via Getty Images
Tzachi Hanegbi, national security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on October 14 that hostilities appeared to be contained. Hanegbi warned Hezbollah not to take actions that could lead to the “destruction” of Lebanon.
WHAT ARE THE REGIONAL TERRITORIES THAT HEZBOLLAH HOLDS?
Hezbollah has been a source of inspiration and support for other Iranian-backed groups throughout the Middle East. It has trained armed groups in Iraq and participated in the fighting there.
Saudi Arabia says Hezbollah is also fighting in support of the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen. Hezbollah denies this.
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF HEZBOLLAH IN LEBANON?
A plume of smoke from Israeli artillery fire in Dahaira, a village on the border between Lebanon and Israel.AP
Hezbollah’s influence is bolstered by its sophisticated weapons and the support of many Lebanese Shiites who say the group is defending Lebanon from Israel.
Lebanese parties opposed to Hezbollah say the group has undermined the country and accuse it of unilaterally dragging Lebanon into armed conflict.
Hezbollah has ministers in the government and lawmakers in parliament.
It entered Lebanese politics more prominently in 2005 after Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon following the assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, who symbolized Saudi influence in the country.
Israeli soldiers patrol in an armored personnel carrier at an undisclosed position in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon on October 15, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
A UN-backed court convicted three Hezbollah members in absentia of the murder. Hezbollah denies any role, describing the court as a tool of its enemies.
In 2008, the power struggle between Hezbollah and its Lebanese political enemies, which had the support of the West and Saudi Arabia, developed into a brief conflict. Hezbollah fighters took over parts of Beirut after the government vowed to crack down on the group’s military communications network.
In 2016, Hezbollah-affiliated Christian politician Michel Aoun became president – in Lebanon’s sectarian political system, the presidency is held by a Maronite Christian.
Two years later, Hezbollah and its allies won a parliamentary majority. This majority disappeared in 2022, but the group continued to wield considerable political influence.
The group campaigned against the judge investigating the 2020 Beirut port explosion, which destroyed much of the capital, after he tried to question Hezbollah allies. The stalemate led to deadly fighting in Beirut in 2021.
IS HIZBOLLAH ACCUSED OF ATTACKS ON WESTERN TARGETS?
Lebanese security and Western intelligence officials say groups linked to Hezbollah carried out suicide attacks on embassies and Western targets and kidnapped Westerners in the 1980s. One group, Islamic Jihad, which is not affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, is believed to be led by Imad Moughniyah, a top Hezbollah commander who was killed in a car bombing in Syria in 2008.
The United States holds Hezbollah responsible for a suicide bombing that destroyed the US Marine headquarters in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 soldiers, and a suicide attack the same year on the US embassy. A suicide bombing also hit a French barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 58 French paratroopers.
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Referring to the attack and hostage taking, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah said in a 2022 interview that it was carried out by a small group not linked to Hezbollah.
WHAT DO WESTERN GOVERNMENTS OR OTHERS SAY ABOUT THE GROUP?
Western countries including the United States designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. So are the Arab Gulf countries that are allied with the US, including Saudi Arabia.
The European Union classifies Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist group, but not its political wing.
Argentina blames Hezbollah and Iran for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people, and for the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29. Iran and Hezbollah both deny responsibility.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
