Lebanon’s Hezbollah has exchanged fire almost constantly across the border with Israel in recent days, in the worst escalation since their major war in 2006, and the development threatens to escalate the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, Reuters reported, citing news. .ro.

At least five Israeli soldiers, 13 Hezbollah terrorists and five Palestinians from other terrorist groups were killed in these firefights between Hezbollah and Israel. An Israeli civilian was killed in a Hezbollah attack on Sunday, two Lebanese civilians and a Reuters journalist were also killed by Israeli fire.

The Biden administration has privately urged Israel not to launch a military campaign against Hezbollah as Washington tries to prevent the current war from spreading beyond Gaza, two officials familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Wednesday.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah movement has said it is ready to help when the time comes in a war between Israel and Hamas, a movement also backed by Tehran.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF HEZBALL?

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards founded Hezbollah in 1982 at the height of the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war. This was part of Iran’s efforts to export the 1979 Islamic Revolution to the region and fight Israeli forces after the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Sharing Tehran’s Shia Islamist ideology, Hezbollah recruited Lebanese Shia Muslims.

The group has transformed from a little-known faction into a well-armed force with great influence over the Lebanese state. The United States, some Western governments and other states consider it a terrorist organization.

HOW POWERFUL IS HEZBALL’S 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 to Israel’s withdrawal in 2000.

Hezbollah demonstrated its military achievements in 2006 during a five-week war with Israel that erupted after crossing into Israeli territory, kidnapping two soldiers and killing others.

Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets at Israel during the conflict, killing 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 158 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Hezbollah’s military power has grown since it deployed to Syria, Iran’s other ally in the region, to help President Bashar al-Assad fight the mostly Sunni rebels.

Hezbollah boasts weapons, including precision rockets and drones, and says it can hit all areas of Israel.

In 2021, Hezbollah leader Syed Hassan Nasrallah said the group had 100,000 fighters.

Iran supplies Hezbollah with weapons and money. The United States estimates that Iran has provided Hezbollah with hundreds of millions of dollars annually in recent years.

WHAT DOES HE HAVE TO DO WITH HAMAS?

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 leadership of the Palestinian resistance” on October 7, the day Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack from Gaza into Israel, killing 1,300 people.

Since October 7, Hezbollah has repeatedly exchanged fire on the border with Israel.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, present in Lebanon, launched attacks against Israel from Lebanon for the first time, including Islamic Jihad’s cross-border infiltration into Israel on October 10.

Tzahi Hanegbi, national security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on October 14 that the fighting appeared to be contained. Hanegbi warned Hezbollah not to take actions that could lead to the “destruction” of Lebanon.

WHAT REGIONAL INFLUENCE DOES HEZBALLAH HAVE?

Hezbollah has been a source of inspiration and support for other Iranian-backed groups in the Middle East.

He trained armed forces in Iraq and participated in combat operations in that country.

Saudi Arabia says Hezbollah has also fought in support of Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen. Hezbollah denies this.

WHAT IS HEZBALL’S ROLE IN LEBANON?

Hezbollah’s influence is supported by its sophisticated arsenal 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 state and accuse it of unilaterally dragging Lebanon into armed conflict.

Hezbollah has ministers in the government and lawmakers in the parliament. He became more involved in Lebanese politics in 2005, after Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who symbolized Saudi Arabia’s influence in the country. A UN-backed tribunal convicted three members of Hezbollah in absentia for murder. Hezbollah denies any role, describing the tribunal as a tool of its enemies.

In 2008, the power struggle between Hezbollah and its Lebanese political opponents, who had the support of the West and Saudi Arabia, turned into a brief conflict. Hezbollah fighters seized control of parts of Beirut after the government vowed to destroy the group’s military communications network.

In 2016, Michel Aoun, a Christian politician linked to Hezbollah, became president in Lebanon’s sectarian political system, where a Maronite Christian is the president. Two years later, Hezbollah and its allies won a parliamentary majority. This majority was lost in 2022, but the group continued to have great political influence.

The group campaigned against the judge investigating the 2020 Beirut port bombing that devastated large areas of the capital, after he tried to question Hezbollah allies. The blockade led to deadly clashes in Beirut in 2021.

HEZBOLLA ATTACKED WESTERN TARGETS?

Lebanese security officials and Western intelligence officials said that in the 1980s, groups linked to Hezbollah carried out suicide attacks on Western embassies and targets and kidnapped Western citizens.

One of the groups, Islamic Jihad, which has no ties to the Palestinian Authority, was reportedly led by Imad Mughniya, 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 Corps headquarters in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 service members, and for a suicide attack on the US embassy the same year.

In 1983, a suicide bomber also attacked a French barracks in Beirut, killing 58 French paratroopers.

Referring to these attacks and hostage-taking, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah said in an interview in 2022 that they were carried out by small groups not affiliated with Hezbollah.

HOW DOES THE WORLD THINK OF HEZBALLAH?

Western countries, including the United States, recognize Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. So are the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, which are allies of the United States, 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, which killed 85 people, and the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people. Both Iran and Hezbollah deny responsibility.