Hezbollah has spent the past three months preparing for a possible return to war with Israel, using new money from Iran to rebuild its arsenal, Lebanese security sources told Reuters in a report published Monday, October 26. The group received tens of millions of dollars for military purposes, the sources said, on top of about $200 million for displaced families in Shiite areas.
The rearmament centers on explosives and explosive drones that can be flown into Israeli positions, according to the report. It comes as Israeli troops still hold villages in southern Lebanon and as the government in Beirut faces pressure to disarm the group.
How the war got here
Hezbollah opened fire on Israel on March 2, days after the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began in late February. Israel's offensive in Lebanon has since killed more than 4,000 people and displaced about a quarter of the population, Reuters reported. Fighting largely eased over the summer under an interim deal between Iran and the United States that included a Lebanon ceasefire.
Hezbollah rejected a U.S.-facilitated agreement between Israel and Lebanon in early June, and a broader framework announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio later that month, demanding a full ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal, according to a Wikipedia account of the war. Israel now controls more than 600 square kilometers of Lebanese territory, about 6% of the country, according to an ABC News Australia analysis. More than 320,000 displaced Lebanese have not been able to return home.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has said operations will continue as long as Hezbollah threatens northern Israel. The Israeli military told ABC it acts within international law and that "Israel does not operate against the State of Lebanon or its civilians."
What each side says
Hezbollah's media office told Reuters that Israel's occupation of Lebanese land makes resistance a legitimate right. It denied that its command and control systems had broken down and said it wanted to avoid giving Israeli leaders a reason to escalate. The group acknowledged this month that explosives seized by Lebanese authorities belonged to it.
The Israeli military said it uses remotely operated systems to watch southern Lebanon and limit its troops' exposure to threats. In Washington, a State Department spokesperson said the United States would keep "strangling Hezbollah's finances" through sanctions and other measures. A Treasury spokesperson said Iran was "running out of money and ways to move money."
Cash for the base
Some of the money is going to Hezbollah's own community. The group began a payment drive on October 13 for families who lost homes in the war, Al Jazeera reported. Families in Beirut and its suburbs whose homes were destroyed receive $14,000, and those outside the capital receive $12,000, plus furniture allowances. A State Department official disputed that Iran, under heavy economic pressure, could have sent the $200 million.
Analysts told Al Jazeera the payments are meant to hold on to Shiite support that has frayed during the war, and that they challenge a Lebanese government trying to rein the group in. Nicholas Blanford of the Atlantic Council said the money would be a major help to a group that is "very sensitive towards the needs of their support base."
The government recently seized hundreds of kilograms of explosives linked to Hezbollah and made arrests, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio called President Joseph Aoun the same week to press him on the seizure. Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah has demanded that the explosives be returned and those arrested be released.
The question of who holds the guns in southern Lebanon is far older than this war. For the long view, read why the Middle East has been contested for 5,000 years.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
