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Summary:
Hezbollah (“Party of God”) is an Islamist terrorist organization based in Lebanon, which is loyal to, as well as funded and armed by, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist entity by 22 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, Colombia and Argentina. The European Union, the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council have also declared Hezbollah’s military wing a terrorist group.
The purpose of Hezbollah’s existence is to pose a constant existential threat to Israel on behalf of Tehran. With the Iranian regime's financial and military support, Hezbollah has destabilized and reshaped Lebanese society in pursuit of this singular aim. Israel’s northern border was once its quietest and most peaceful frontier, but was turned into a war zone first by the arrival of the PLO, and then by the establishment of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah’s primary goal is the destruction of Israel, which it sees as an imperial outpost of the United States. As with other Islamist terror organizations, Hezbollah views all Jews and Israelis as legitimate targets, and has carried out attacks in several countries which has resulted in the deaths of many Jews and Israeli civilians. It considers itself to be a supporting participant in Hamas’ “Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood” which began with the massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023.
Background:
Following its violent expulsion from Jordan in 1970, often referred to as Black September, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) established itself in southern Lebanon, from where it staged rocket attacks, raids and other military operations against Israel. The PLO’s militarization of southern Lebanon forced Israel to address the threat by entering Lebanon and installing a security cordon along the border.
After the Iranian revolution in 1979, Iranian and Lebanese Shia clerics held discussions on how to bring the revolution to Lebanon and build an armed opposition to the Israeli presence in southern Lebanon. Among these clerics were the founders of Hezbollah, including its first secretary general, Abbas Musawi. Hezbollah was founded with the help of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) which sent forces to Lebanon in 1982.
The Iranian regime’s Khomeinist world view, named for the Islamic Republic’s first Supreme Leader who regarded the United States as “the Great Satan,” is a central motivating force behind Hezbollah’s actions. Thus, on April 18, 1983, a Hezbollah suicide bomber drove a truck into the front of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans. Six months later, on October 23, 1983, Hezbollah suicide bombers attacked the United States Marine barracks in Beirut, as well as barracks used by members of France’s 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment, killing 241 American and 58 French military personnel.
In 1985, Hezbollah issued a manifesto which begins with dedications to “the torch that […] burned with its pure glittering blood the power of the ‘Zionist Entity’ and its myth,” and to Ayatollah Khomeini, calling him “the one who shattered the American dream in Lebanon.”
The manifesto goes on to state that Hezbollah’s “struggle against the rapist Israel emanates from a doctrinal-historical understanding.” It also rejects “all attempts at mediation between [Hezbollah] and Israel” and even “consider[s] the mediating parties as aggressors,” stating that Hezbollah’s “confrontation with [Israel] will only cease when it is completely obliterated from the face of the earth.”
Hezbollah’s 2009 manifesto likewise confirms their “total refusal to any kind of compromise with the Zionist entity [Israel]” describing this stance as “predetermined and permanent.”
Targeting Israelis and Jews:
This implacable enmity towards Israel has not only been expressed in words. Since its founding, Hezbollah has targeted Jews and Israelis around the world with terrorist attacks.
On March 17,1992, a Hezbollah cell bombed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people and wounding 242 more. Two years later, on July 18, 1994, a Hezbollah suicide bomber drove a van laden with 600 pounds of explosives into the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The blast killed 85 people and injured over 300.
Over the years, Hezbollah has also indiscriminately fired countless rockets into northern Israel. Along with Hamas’ rocket bombardments, the threat posed by Hezbollah’s arsenal of reportedly more than 130,000 rockets necessitated the development of Israel’s Iron Dome and other anti-missile defense systems to protect Israeli civilians.
On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah launched a cross-border raid into Israel, killing three Israeli soldiers and capturing two others, aiming to pressure Israel into releasing Hezbollah prisoners. The two kidnapped soldiers - Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev – were also murdered by Hezbollah.
The month-long conflict that resulted from Hezbollah’s attack has since been touted as a victory by Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah, because Israel was unable to “retrieve the two hostages without an exchange […] nor crush Hezbollah.” Days after a ceasefire was called on August 14, 2006, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei praised Hezbollah, saying they had imposed their “superiority over the Zionist entity and […] ridiculed the myth that the Zionist army is invincible.”
Post October 7:
The belief that Israel can and should be destroyed through gradual attrition underpins Hezbollah’s current active support of Hamas in its war against Israel, which began with the October 7th attack. Nasrallah called the attack “the great, grand, jihadist operation [of] October 7th… this great, blessed, and widespread operation...” which “…was a heroic, courageous, innovative, well-executed, grand, great work deserving all praise.”
Nasrallah also described attacks on Israel by Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria since October 7 – all in support of Hamas – as “a battle of accumulating achievements and points, a battle of time” whose aim is to “create chaos,” draining Israel’s military and economic resources to “increase the pressure on the enemy.”
Ongoing missile and rocket attacks from Hezbollah have forced the internal displacement of over 60,000 Israeli civilians from cities and towns in the northern part of the country as well as Lebanese civilians living near the border with Israel.
On July 27, 2024, a Hezbollah-fired rocket landed on a soccer field in the Israel-Druze town of Majdal Shams, killing 12 children.
In response to the attack in Majdal Shams, Hezbollah's most senior military commander, Fuad Shukr, was targeted and killed by the IDF in an airstrike on Dahieh, a suburb of Beirut, on July 30 2024. Shukr commanded the Hezbollah unit responsible for targeting northern Israel with missile attacks. He was also wanted by the United States for his role in the 1983 US Marines barracks bombing.