SUMMARY
Hezbollah (Party of God) is a military and political Shiite Muslim organization in Lebanon. From meager beginnings as just another faction in the Lebanese civil war, Hezbollah grew throughout the 1990s and 2000s to become the most powerful actor in the Lebanese political arena, with strong economic, political and military clout. Hezbollah’s main original goal was the expulsion of Israeli forces from the occupied areas of southern Lebanon, but has over the years become more deeply entrenched as a political actor directly involved in Lebanese political life.
Although Hezbollah formally announced its existence in 1985, when it published its charter and goals, the organization begun to be formed already in 1982; in the aftermath of the second Israeli invasion of Lebanon (June 1982). Hezbollah drew its members from the secular (yet Shiite) Amal movement, which initially took a relatively moderate stance towards the Israeli invaders as Shiites were very much second-class citizens in Lebanon at the time, and was backed in its initial formation by the presence in the Bekaa Valley of a contingent of Iranian Revolutionary Guards (the elite forces of the Iranian armed forces). Ever since this initial support Hezbollah has enjoyed close ties to the Shiite leadership of the state of Iran.
Hezbollah’s 1985 manifesto declared the movement’s goals to be the destruction of Israel and the United States, resistance towards Western imperialism, the formation of an Islamic state in Lebanon (though not through force), and the removal of Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon. This last goal has always been viewed as the primary one, even though the group’s focus shifted more towards internal Lebanese affairs after the internationally certified withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah, however, views several pieces of land that are commonly seen as belonging to Israel as being Lebanese and has thus stated that the withdrawal has not been finalized.
Hezbollah’s initial military operations were aimed at Israeli forces in the Shia-dominated southern parts of Israel, where they waged a low-intensity guerrilla war. As the movement grew in importance and as Israeli forces withdrew from large parts of Lebanese territory the group, however, became more and more drawn into the quagmire of the Lebanese civil war. Rivalries over who should command the loyalty of the Shiites in Lebanon lead to open warfare with Amal in 1988-1990, which killed hundreds. With the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990 all militias, with the prominent exception of Hezbollah, were demobilized, leaving Hezbollah as the only (openly and massively) armed non-state group. This decision was made with an eye to Hezbollah’s role in fighting Israel’s occupation of parts of southern Lebanon, and with the open support of Lebanon’s new master, Syria.
The 1990s saw Hezbollah continuing its fight against Israeli forces, engaging in guerrilla warfare against what Israel called the ‘security zone’ in southern Lebanon. These small-scale skirmishes at times escalated into larger conflagrations, such as in 1996 and 2006. In 1994, Hezbollah took the conflict to Argentina by bombing the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in Buenos Aires resulting in 86 fatalities. This turned the Hezbollah-civilians conflict active. From the year 2000, when Hezbollah could function unhindered by Israel in southern Lebanon, the movement grew both in political and military importance, by 2006 far outweighing even the Lebanese army in military might.
Since the year 2000, Hezbollah turned its eyes inward to a greater degree, becoming a key political player in Lebanese politics. The party formed electoral alliances with other groups that were pro-Syrian and opposed Lebanon’s stronger alignment with Western nations; winning parliamentary and cabinet seats in the process. In the context of these rivalries, that often formed along religious as well as political lines, the group has been involved in clashes with militias of other political movements.
Starting in 2012, Hezbollah was involved in the Syrian Civil War on the side of the Ba'ath government. Here, they fell under the command of Bashar al-Assad’s government forces. Although Israel maintained a position of strict neutrality on the Syrian Civil War, it conducted missile and air strikes targeting Iran and its proxies, especially Hezbollah.
Although Israel and Hezbollah have been involved in skirmishes, levels of violence remained relatively low since 2006 when a ceasefire was signed. This changed with the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war when Hezbollah, on 8 October, fired rockets at the Shebaa Farms region. In response, Israel conducted airstrikes and artillery shelling in Lebanon. Since then, the conflict has escalated further claiming thousands of lives.
In terms of secondary support Hezbollah has, almost constantly, received strong support from Syria and Iran, which have both provided the group with funding, arms and other material support in exchange for challenging Israel.
Hezbollah’s most prominent leader has been Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, a Lebanese national who has studied at Shia seminars in Iraq and assumed leadership of the movement in 1992. He succeeded Abbas al-Musawi, who was killed by Israeli forces in 1992. Nasrallah was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on 27 September 2024. Nasrallah was succeeded by Naim Mohammad Qassem on 29 October 2024.
Hezbollah has been involved in the intra-state, non-state, and one-sided categories of UCDP organized violence.
