Hizballah / Hizbollah / Hizbullah / Hezbollah
Party of God
Islamic Jihad
Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine
Organization of the Oppressed on Earth
Revolutionary Justice Organization

Hizballah is an Islamic movement founded after the Israeli military seizure of Lebanon in 1982, which resulted in the formation of Islamic resistance units committed to the liberation of the occupied territories and the ejection of Israeli forces. Hizbollah was established in 1982 during the Lebanon War when a group of Lebanese Shi'ite Muslims declared themselves to be the "Party of God" (Hizb Allah, which is clear in Hizbollah but progressively less so in Hizbollah / Hizbullah / Hezbollah).

Upon the realization that the IDF was entrenching itself in south Lebanon, and influenced and assisted by 1,500 Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon, Hizballah cells began developing with the immediate desire to resist the Israeli invasion. Hizbollah began establishing its base in Lebanon in 1982 and has expanded and strengthened ever since, primarily due to its wave of suicide bombings and foreign support by Iran and Syria.

Hizballah fought alongside troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Hezbollah said the war is necessary to protect Shi'ites from Sunni extremists who had been at the forefront of the Syrian opposition. Hezbollah's deployment of fighters to Syria has increased the group's enemies beyond its traditional rival, Israel, to include Sunni extremists. The Syrian regime and Hezbollah had a long military alliance, and Hezbollah leaders had sought safe haven in Syria and even routed weapons from Iran into Lebanon. So the interplay between the Assad regime and Hezbollah has been well chronicled.

In addition to the traditional Lebanese Hezbollah, which had deployed fighters to Syria since 2011, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Hossein Hamedani declared in May 2014 that Iran had formed "a second Hezbollah in Syria." In early 2014, several Shiite militias in Syria began to call themselves, “Hezbollah fi Suriya,” or Hezbollah in Syria.

Description

Formed in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, this Lebanon-based radical Shia group takes its ideological inspiration from the Iranian revolution and the teachings of the late Ayatollah Khomeini. The Majlis al-Shura, or Consultative Council, is the group's highest governing body and is led by Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah. Hizballah is dedicated to liberating Jerusalem and eliminating Israel, and has formally advocated ultimate establishment of Islamic rule in Lebanon. Nonetheless, Hizballah has actively participated in Lebanon's political system since 1992. This radical Shia is dedicated to creation of Iranian-style Islamic republic in Lebanon and removal of all non-Islamic influences from area. It is strongly anti-Western and anti-Israeli.

A very important factor that developed Hizballah was the establishment of the Islamic Revolution in Iran that was led by the Imam Khomeini. This revolution consolidated new concepts in the field of Islamic thought mainly the concept of Willayat Al-Faqih. The revolution also generalized Islamic expressions against the west such as arrogance, the great Satan, hypocrites and the oppressed. Due to that it was only normal for the ideological doctrine in Iran to take root in Lebanon. This tie was very quickly translated on the ground by direct support from the Islamic Republic of Iran through its revolutionary guards and then to Hizballah that was resisting the Israeli occupation. This religious and ideological tie between Hizballah and Iran following the revolution with its stance towards the Zionist entity had a great effect on releasing vital material and moral support to Hizballah. Hizballah's ideological ideals sees no legitimacy for the existence of Israel, a matter that elevates the contradictions to the level of existence. And the conflict becomes one of legitimacy that is based on religious ideals. The seed of resistance is also deep in the ideological beliefs of Hizballah, a belief that found its way for expression against the occupation of Lebanon.

Strength

The State Department's 1993 report on international terrorism lists Hizbollah's "strength" at several thousand. Hizbollah sources assert that the organization has about 5,000-10,000 fighters. Other sources report that Hizbollah's militia consists of a core of about 300-400 fighters, which can be expanded to up to 3,000 within several hours if a battle with Israel develops. These reserves presumably are called in from Hizbollah strongholds in Lebanon, including the Bekaa Valley and Beirut's southern suburbs. The number of members involved in combat activity in southern Lebanon is under 1,000. But it has many activists and moral supporters. After the Israeli withdrawal Hizballah reduced the number of full time fighters to about 500, though estimates range from 300 to 1,200. There are also several thousand reserves, but these lack training or experience.

Hizbollah's militia is a light force, equipped with small arms, such as automatic rifles, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and Katyusha rockets, which it occasionally has fired on towns in northern Israel. Hizbollah forces are shown on television conducting military parades in Beirut, which often include tanks and armored personnel carriers that may have been captured from the Lebanese army or purchased from Palestinian guerrillas or other sources.

Location/Area of Operation

Operates in the Al Biqa' (Bekaa Valley), the southern suburbs of Beirut, and southern Lebanon. Has established cells in Europe, Africa, South America, North America, and elsewhere. Its training bases are mostly in the previously Syrian-controlled Biqa Valley, and its headquarters and offices are in southern Beirut and in Ba'albek.

Hezbollah presence in Latin America dates back to the mid-1980s, when the group began sending operatives to the tri-border area (TBA) of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. The TBA is known as a “terrorist safe haven,” given the wide range of illicit activities conducted within it, including money laundering, counterfeiting, drug trafficking, and human trafficking. Data provided by the U.S. Treasury Department indicate that since 2006 over a dozen individuals and several businesses in the TBA have been sanctioned for providing financial support to Hezbollah leadership in Lebanon.

Robert Noriega identified at least two parallel yet collaborative terrorist networks that he claimed are growing at an alarming rate in Latin America: the Nassereddine Network and the Rabbani Network. These networks encompass more than eighty operatives in at least twelve countries throughout the region. Those countries with the highest presence of operatives are Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, and Chile.

Mustafa Badreddine [aka Mustafa Badr Al Din]

On 10 May 2016, Hizballah’s military commander in Syria, Mustafa Badreddine [aka Mustafa Badr Al Din], was killed in a mysterious explosion near Damascus shortly after a meeting with his commanders. “According to preliminary information, a large explosion targeted one of our positions near Damascus international airport, killing our brother, commander Mustafa Badreddine, and wounding others,” Hezbollah said at the time. According to Hizballah, an unspecified Sunni rebel group conducted the assassination; however, no group has claimed responsibility.

Hezbollah said Badreddine had told his friends and family that he would return from Syria victorious or "a martyr." Badreddine, 55, led the Shi'ite group’s involvement in the Syrian civil war and was the highest official from the group to die since Hezbollah entered the conflict several years earlier. Badreddine had been a member of Hizballah since its inception in 1982 and took part in a majority of its operations.

According to Western media, he commanded 5,000 to 6,000 Hizballah fighters as of 2011. Badr Al Din is assessed to be responsible for Hizballah's military operations in Syria since 2011, including the movement of Hizballah fighters from Lebanon to Syria, in support of the Syrian regime. Since September 2011, strategic coordination was handled between Assad and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah on a weekly basis, with Badr Al Din accompanying Nasrallah during the meetings in Damascus.

Hizballah viewed Syria and Assad as essential to preserving key land and air corridors for weapons transport from Iran to Lebanon. Western media estimate 8,000 fighters, or roughly one-quarter of Hizballah’s fighting force, is in Syria, demonstrating the group’s commitment to the civil war there.

Following the 2008 assassination of Hezbollah terrorist chief Imad Mughniyeh, Badreddine's brother-in-law, Badreddine assumed leadership of Hezbollah’s military wing and later of its militia battalion is Syria as well. Mustafa Mughniyeh is a Hizballah commander who once led Hizballah’s operations in the Golan Heights and helped organize the group’s terrorist infrastructure. He is the nephew of former Hizballah military commander Mustafa Badreddine and the son of Imad Mughniyeh, the former chief of Hizballah military and terrorist operations.

In September of 2012, the United States imposed sanctions against Hezbollah leaders, including Bedreddine, in part to expose Hezbollah’s support for the Assad regime and its role in conducting indiscriminate terrorist attacks in Syria and Lebanon. From time to time, the United States identifies certain individuals as crucial to the operation of terrorist organizations. Often these individuals are top leaders, or they help finance terrorist organizations. These are frequently people who have committed, or are deemed to pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism. When such individuals are identified, the U.S. government places that person's name on the Specially Designated Nationals List, their assets within U.S. reach are immediately blocked, and they are effectively locked out of the global financial system. As a result, no U.S. citizen or company may conduct business with designated individuals.

Since 2012, Badr Al Din coordinated Hizballah military activities in Syria. Badr Al Din led Hizballah ground offensives in the Syrian town of al-Qusayr in February 2013, and in May 2013 the Free Syrian Army (FSA) confirmed that Badr Al Din was leading Hizballah's operations in al-Qusayr.

Badreddine was convicted in Kuwait for his role in bomb attacks on the US and French embassies in 1983. Badreddine escaped from prison in Kuwait after the country was invaded by Iraq under the leadership of Saddam Hussein in 1990. Badreddine was also one of four men accused in absentia of plotting the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others. The trial began in 2014 at The Hague, Netherlands.

Badreddine and other suspects in the Hariri case had been dying off quickly. Other suspects who have been killed or died under mysterious circumstances in recent years include top Syrian intelligence officials Rustom Ghazaleh and Jamaa Jamaa, and Badreddine’s brother-in-law, Imad Mughniyah, who was Hezbollah’s former top military commander until he was assassinated in 2008.

“People like Badreddine and Mughniyah,” argued Nadim Shehadi, who heads the Fares Center at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,, “belong to the darker side of institutions and are not supposed to be well-known.... Once they are known and become too exposed,” he added, “they become a liability to their own people.”

Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Israeli Army Radio that Badreddine’s passing was “good for Israel,” but added that “those [fighting] in Syria ... have a lot of [enemies other than] Israel.”

The head of the Israel Defense Forces said on 21 March 2017 that Badreddine, was killed by his own men. An Israeli military official said Israel believed the order to kill Badreddine was given by Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Israeli intelligence believes Badreddine had been feuding with Iranian military commanders in Syria over the heavy losses his group had suffered on the battlefield.

Hizballah - Activities

Once established as a militia, Hizbollah received acclaim and legitimacy in Lebanon and throughout the Muslim world by fighting against IDF and SLA troops. In fact, since 1988 Hizbollah replaced Amal (the other prominent Shi'ite organization in Lebanon) as the predominant force due to its activity against Israel. Over the years Hizbollah military operations have grown to include attacking IDF and SLA outposts, ambushing convoys, laying explosive devices booby-trapping cars, and launching long range mortar shells and Katyusha rockets at IDF outposts and into Israel proper.

Between the spring of 1983 to the summer of 1985 the Hizballah launched an unprecedented wave of suicide bombings which included an attack on the US embassy and at a US Marine base in Beirut. Known or suspected to have been involved in numerous anti-US terrorist attacks, including the suicide truck bombing of the US Embassy and US Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983 and the US Embassy Annex in Beirut in September 1984. Elements of the group were responsible for the kidnapping and detention of US and other Western hostages in Lebanon. The group also attacked the Israeli Embassy in Argentina in 1992.

On 07 February 2000 Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the IDF to act, in accordance with the decisions of the Political-Security Cabinet, against terrorist and Lebanese infrastructure targets. The Political-Security Cabinet's decisions were in response to the serious escalation in Hizballah operations against the IDF and SLA, operations which are based in Lebanese villages - a violation of the "Grapes of Wrath" understandings. These operations were being neither prevented by the Lebanese government nor restrained by Syria.

The organization was very active against Israel during its stay in Lebanese territory, and since the IDF's withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000 it began focusing on increasing and expanding its activities within Israel with the aim of carrying out "quality" attacks in Israeli territory, thus disrupting any attempt at dialogue and any opportunity to return to the peace process. This became evident during earlier attempts to hold negotiations with regard to a 'hudna' (ceasefire), when Hizballah operators encouraged attacks aimed at causing these contacts to fail.

On Saturday morning, 7 October 2000, an armed and frenzied mob, numbering in the hundreds, attacked the border fence from Lebanese territory, immediately followed by heavy shelling of Israeli border positions by Hizballah terrorist elements from Lebanese territory, using explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, Sager missiles and border shells. During the course of this aggression, three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by a Hizballah unit which had entered Israeli territory for this purpose.

The organization operates against Israel in four main ways:

1. Bringing terrorists and collaborators through the border crossings using foreign documents
2. Setting up a terrorist organization inside Israel and in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip
3. Cross-border operations - smuggling weapons and terrorists
4. Financial support for Palestinian organizations and groups.

Since 2003 it has been possible to see a trend of increasing cooperation between Hizballah in Lebanon and operational entities among the other Palestinian terrorist organizations, with the accent on Tanzim, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Popular Front. This cooperation is particularly evident between Hizballah and the Tanzim and in practice, in recent months Hizballah has served as a kind of "external command" for most of the Tanzim organizations in the territories.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizballah, admitted for the first time in public the existence of a Hizballah unit responsible for activities with the Palestinians. He said this on Almanar television on July 19, 2004, after the death of Ghaleb Awaleh, a senior Hizballah terrorist: ". the fallen Ghaleb Awaleh is like the fallen Ali Salah, from the group which dedicated its life in recent years to helping our brothers in conquered Palestine. We do not wish to conceal the truth. We declare it and glory in it. Ghaleb Awaleh today has fallen on the Palestine road. He is a Jerusalem martyr. He is an Al Aksa Mosque martyr. He is a martyr in the fight against the Zionist enterprise. and we will not to abandon this fight and have never abandoned it. We are in a position where we will fight openly and we will fight clandestinely."

Hizballah's methods of controlling terrorist organizations in the territories are similar to those characteristic of the involvement of the command centers of Palestinian terrorist organizations abroad (Hamas and Islamic Jihad) in the actions of their organizations inside the country. Striking in this framework are the instructions to carry out mass murder attacks within Israeli territory, mediation between terrorists at the different centers of action, the large-scale transfer of money, and finally, coordination of the effort to upgrade the terrorist capabilities of the organizations.

The most significant remaining armed group in Lebanon is Hizballah, which the Government refers to, not as a Lebanese militia, but as a "national resistance group". Hizballah seeks to defend Lebanon from Israel and the removal of Israeli forces from Lebanese soil, namely, the Shab'a farms. Lebanon maintains that the Shab'a farms are Lebanese territory, not Syrian. In the Secretary-General's report of 16 June 2000, however, he confirmed that Israel has fulfilled the requirements of Security Council resolutions 425 and 426 to "withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territory". The Council endorsed that conclusion on 18 June 2000 in a presidential statement. Notwithstanding the Lebanese Government's position that the Shab'a farms area lies within Lebanon, the Government has confirmed that it would respect the Blue Line as identified by the United Nations. The Council has called on Lebanon to respect fully its line.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 (02 September 2004) called for the "disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias". The Government of Lebanon is responsible for the disbanding and disarming of the militias, including Hizballah, and preventing the flow of armaments and other military equipment to the militias, including Hizballah, from Syria, Iran, and other external sources. Lebanon basically rejected Resolution 1559, and by early 2005 this presented the risk of Israeli retaliation against vital Lebanese infrastructure to force action to disarm Hizballah.

A heavy exchange of fire between Hizbollah and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) across the Blue Line took place on 21 November 2005, surpassing any activity level since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000. The exchange began with heavy Hizbollah mortar and rocket fire from a number of locations against several IDF positions close to the Blue Line in the eastern sector of the UNIFIL area of operation. Simultaneously, a large group of Hizbollah fighters infiltrated Ghajar village and launched an assault on the Mayor's office and the IDF position inside the village, south of the Blue Line, which was vacant at the time. The ensuing Israeli retaliation was heavy and included aerial bombing. The exchange of fire subsequently spread all along the Blue Line and lasted for over nine hours. Around 800 artillery, tank and mortar rounds and rockets were exchanged. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) dropped at least 30 aerial bombs.

In a written report to the Security Council 18 April 2006, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on Syria and Iran to stop interfering in Lebanon. The report, which was written by the secretary-general's special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, said that Hizballah, the Lebanese militant group, "maintains close ties, with frequent contacts and regular communication" with Syria and Iran.

Resolution 1680 (2006), adopted by the Security Council on 17 May 2006, welcomed the decision of the Lebanese national dialogue to disarm Palestinian militias outside refugee camps within six months, supports its implementation and calls for further efforts to disband and disarm all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias and to restore fully the Lebanese Government's control over all Lebanese territory.

On July 12, 2006 members of Hizballah infiltrated the Lebanese-Israeli border near Shtula, an Israeli farming village, and claimed responsibility for an ambush conducted on two Israeli Army Hummvees. The attack resulted in the capture of two Israeli soldiers and the deaths of three others. Five more Israeli soldiers were killed in the ensuing pursuit of Hizballah members into Lebanese territory. The combined capture of two soldiers and the deaths of 8 others; was considered the worst loss for Israeli military forces in more than four years. Hizballah also claimed responsibility for two separate Katyusha rocket attacks on Israeli towns resulting in the death of 1 civilian and the injury of 25 others.

The kidnapping of Israeli troops by Hizballah came in the wake of a similar incident less than a month before, on June 25th, 2006, when Palestinian militants forcibly captured an Israeli soldier to use as leverage for bargaining with the Israeli government. The last time Hizballah carried out a similar operation against Israel was in October of 2000, when 3 Israeli soldiers were abducted by the Lebanese militants. All three victims died either by execution or wounds sustained during their capture. Their bodies were returned to Israel in exchange for the release of several Arab prisoners.

The 12 July 2006 attack resulted in immediate retaliation by the Israeli military, which responded to the hostilities against their troops and citizens by bombing roads, bridges, and power plants inside Lebanon. The specific targeting of al-Manar, the Hizballah controlled television station, and the Lebanese international airport as well as the blockading of Lebanon's sea ports was an attempt to force the return of the captured Israeli troops and place greater pressure on Hizballah. These retaliatory actions by Israel resulted in the deaths of dozens of Lebanese civilians and threats of further rocket attacks by Hizballah.