Question 1

What is Hezbollah?

Accepted Answer

Hezbollah, which means “party of God,” is a Shiite Muslim political party and militant group that wields political power in Lebanon and is backed by Iran. It emerged in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War, in reaction to Israel’s occupation of the country’s southern region, which lasted 15 years. In its 1985 manifesto, Hezbollah laid out the destruction of Israel as a key goal. The group has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, and its military arm is on the European Union’s terrorist list. The U.S. government holds the group responsible for orchestrating the bombings of the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983. Hezbollah’s skirmishes with Israel have sometimes served as a proxy battleground for the Iran-Israel conflict. In Lebanon, the group holds sway with much of the country’s historically marginalized Shiite communities. Along with every other political party, it was the target of public anger that exploded in October 2019, when millions of people took to the streets to protest corruption in government. The party also made efforts to stall the investigation into a 2020 blast in Beirut that killed more than 200 people. The group has grown from an Iranian proxy inside Lebanon to a regional powerhouse. It has propped up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and trained Houthi rebels in Yemen and militias in Iraq. The organization has vast political influence in Lebanon, in part because of an absence of state support for the local Shiite community. With the country facing a dire economic crisis, Hezbollah and its allies lost their majority in the country’s parliament last year but still hold the largest number of seats and wield significant control.

Question 2

What is the relationship between Hezbollah and Hamas?

Accepted Answer

Hamas is the militant group responsible for the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. It controls the Gaza Strip and is committed to replacing Israel with a Palestinian state. Hamas is a Sunni Palestinian organization, whereas Iranian-backed Hezbollah is a Shiite Lebanese party. In recent years, they have been at odds over the Syrian civil war, with Hezbollah supporting Assad and Hamas supporting his ouster. However, their shared opposition to Israel’s existence has made them tactical allies. Between 2020 and 2023, leaders from both groups held at least two meetings to discuss the whirlwind of normalization deals between Arab states, such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, with Israel. Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah met with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Lebanon as recently as April. During his visit in 2020, Haniyeh was awarded a hero’s welcome when he visited the country’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, Ain al-Hilweh. Lebanon has not had a census in almost a century, so the number of Palestinians living in the country is unknown. Nearly 500,000 are registered with the United Nations, but the number is not exhaustive as registration is voluntary.

Question 3

What is happening between Hezbollah and Israel?

Accepted Answer

Lebanon shares its southern border with northern Israel. Israel and Hezbollah traded shelling over the border after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, and U.N. peacekeepers said they were talking to authorities on both sides to try to de-escalate “a very dangerous situation.” On Oct. 8, Hezbollah took responsibility for attacking Israeli targets in Shebaa Farms, a disputed area on the border. In the following days, Israel and Hezbollah traded fire, resulting in casualties on both sides. Since the conflict began it has struck deeper into Israel, and Israel has responded by striking deeper into Lebanon. On Thursday, Hezbollah said it had struck 19 positions in Israel simultaneously. On Sunday, it said it had struck an Israeli drone with surface-to-air missiles for what appears to be the first time.

Question 4

Is Hezbollah involved in the Israel-Gaza war?

Accepted Answer

Whether Hezbollah will enter the war remains to be seen. On Oct. 8, Hezbollah said it attacked targets in Shebaa Farms “in solidarity” with Hamas. At a Beirut rally, a top Hezbollah leader expressed more support, saying: “Our hearts are with you. … Our history and guns and our rockets are with you.” Hamas has denied the involvement of Iran and Hezbollah in planning the attack on Israel. Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut, said he believed Hezbollah and Iran had probably provided Hamas with advice about how to stage such an attack. He noted a military exercise Hezbollah carried out in southern Lebanon earlier this year that simulated storming the Israeli border. A war with Israel, however, would be costly for Hezbollah and Lebanon. The country, which is in the throes of an economic crisis, would sustain “staggering” casualties, and Hezbollah would risk losing its political hold over Lebanon. Since 2006, when Hezbollah began a month-long war with Israel in which hundreds of Lebanese people were killed, the group has taken care to avoid escalation, Khashan said, and the group’s leaders probably don’t want war now. He noted that the shelling so far has not violated the rules of engagement. “Hezbollah understands the consequences of going to war against Israel,” Khashan said. “If Hezbollah decides to enter the war against Israel, then Hezbollah’s achievements over the past 30 years will go down the drain … and I don’t think [the] Hezbollah that now controls Lebanon is interested in losing its hold on the country.” Iran has also denied any role in the Hamas attack, and there are early indications that there is little appetite for a broader regional conflict. Still, whether the escalating conflict might spiral remains an open question. “This could easily get out of control,” said Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Arab Gulf States Institute.

Question 5

What is the mood in Lebanon?

Accepted Answer

The mood in Lebanon is tense, as people there wonder whether the country will be engulfed in the war. A resident in Tyre, a city in the country’s predominantly Hezbollah-controlled south, described mounting fear and uncertainty among residents. “There’s general panic and dismay,” said the resident, whom The Post did not name because of concern for his safety. “Everyone is trying to find out if a full-blown war [is] going to happen.” Some are leaving for other parts of the country, and others, like him, are weighing whether to flee. In Khashan’s assessment, it’s more likely that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could seek to engage Hezbollah in conflict than the other way around. If Netanyahu, who said Israel’s response to the Hamas attack would “change the Middle East,” were to decide to attempt to eliminate Israel’s enemies beyond Hamas, Hezbollah would be a logical target. “You can’t change the face of the Middle East by hitting at Hamas alone. Hezbollah is a far more serious strategic threat to Israel,” Khashan said. “This is the fear in Lebanon, this is what people are concerned about, that Netanyahu might deliberately drag Lebanon into this confrontation.”

Question 6

Who is Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah?

Accepted Answer

Nasrallah, born in 1960, joined Hezbollah around the time of its founding in 1982 amid the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. He is Hezbollah’s third secretary general, a position he took in 1992 when Hezbollah’s previous leader was killed by Israel. The Council on Foreign Relations described him as “charismatic, highly intelligent, and deeply religious.” Aurélie Daher, an expert on Hezbollah with Université Paris-Dauphine, wrote in 2019 that Nasrallah’s personality and “militant path combine into a major element in the attraction the party holds for militants as well as supporters.” He is considered a specially designated global terrorist, subject to U.S. sanctions. Its leader, Hasan Nasrallah, gave his first address since the Oct. 7 attack on Friday. He said that Hezbollah and other Hamas allies were unaware of the plans for the Hamas’s attack, but added that “all the options are on the table” for Hezbollah .

What is Hezbollah, the militant group on Israel’s northern border?

Israel-Gaza war