Inside Hezbollah's Fight for Survival Against Israel

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Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Shia militia and political force rooted in Lebanon, is under mounting pressure to disarm. With Iranian backing under strain, its leadership decimated, and many of its strongholds reduced to rubble, the group is (it’s) facing calls (coming under pressure) to lay down its arms. Are we about to see the end of Hezbollah as a fighting force or can they come back from the brink? Hezbollah is Arabic for “the party of God”, a name taken from a Quranic description of believers in God and the Muslim prophet Muhammadwhich says “they are the victors”. The Shia Muslim group was conceived with Iranian backing after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which led to a long-running occupation of the south of the country, a Lebanese Shia stronghold. It developed from a ragtag militia that operated under several front names and carried out attacks on western interests in Lebanon during the 1980s, including the 1983 bombings of the Marines barracks and US embassy. It developed into the most powerful armed group in Lebanon, dwarfing the military and other sectarian militia. But its support drew largely from two different facets: the first was its role in leading a guerrilla campaign against the Israeli occupation that ultimately forced Israel to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000, catapulting Hezbollah to stardom not only in the country but across the Arab world. It fought Israel again, in 2006, after a cross border raid triggered a month-long war that ended with a standstill. Though Lebanon’s infrastructure was devastated, and its opponents in the country heaped blame on Hezbollah for inviting the war, the notion of a militia stalemating Israel, the country that defeated the combined armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, further cemented its stature in the region. 00:00 Intro 00:43 Birth of Hezbollah 02:12 War with Israel 03:47 Israel's Offensive 06:16 Hezbollah's End? 07:53 Hezbollah Under Pressure Read the best of our journalism: https://www.thetimes.com/ Subscribe to the Times Originals YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=timesoriginals Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timesandsundaytimes/ Find us on X: https://x.com/thetimes Find us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@UCF-VP3b3oH0XASqsLI5rnLw Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetimes/ #lebanon #hezbollah #military #documentary