What is Hezbollah? How group became so powerful and its ideology explained

The leader of Hezbollah has warned of a wider conflict in the region if there is no de-escalation of Israel’s siege on Gaza.

Hassan Nasrallah has spoken out for the first time in public since war broke out between Israel and Hamas last month.

In a televised address on Friday, the head of the powerful political and militant organisation in Lebanon said: “We are ready for all possibilities.”

The warning comes as Hezbollah continues its cross-border conflict with Israel.

We take at look at Hezbollah, its ideology and how it became so powerful.

What is Hezbollah?

Hezbollah, meaning ‘the party of God’, was founded in the early 1980s by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards during the 1975-90 civil war in Lebanon.

Israeli forces occupied the south of Lebanon following the attempted assassination in June 1982 of Israel’s ambassador in London, with the aim of removing guerillas from the Palestine Liberation Organisation who were attacking the country.

Hezbollah was established to fight Israeli and Western influence in the Middle East. It brought together a number of Lebanese Shia groups, unified by their resistance to Israel’s occupation.

Since 1992, it has been led by Muslim cleric Hassan Nasrallah and become involved in politics in Lebanon.

It now operates as both a Shia Muslim political party and heavily armed militant group.

The armed wing has carried out attacks on Israeli and US forces in Lebanon and been designated a terrorist organisation by the UK and US governments. The political party has ministers in government and members in parliament.

What is its ideology?

Hezbollah has billed itself as a Shia resistance movement and enshrined its ideology in a manifesto it produced in 1985.

The first objective was to fight against American and Israeli influence in the Middle East, including the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon.

The second was to bring together all Muslims in one community, under which Lebanon would advance the aims of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran.

It updated it manifesto in 2009, dropping calls for the formation of an Islamic republic in Lebanon.

How has it become so powerful?

In 2016, Hezbollah-allied Christian politician Michel Aoun became president in Lebanon. Two years later, Hezbollah and its allies won a parliamentary majority. This majority was lost in 2022, but the group continues to exercise major political sway.

Hezbollah receives weapons and financial backing from Iran. The United States estimates Iran has allocated it hundreds of millions of dollars annually in recent years.

Nasrallah has said the group has 100,000 fighters at its disposal.

But the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated in 2020 that Hezbollah had up to 22,000 active fighters and around 20,000 reserves.

Nicholas Blanford, an expert on Hezbollah with Washington-based think-tank Atlantic Council, told Al Jazeera the group has at least 60,000 fighters, including both full-time soldiers and reservists.

And it has increased its stockpile of missiles from 14,000 in 2006 to about 150,000 now, most of which are short range, he said.

It also understood to have drones, precision missiles, anti-aircraft, anti-tank and anti-ship missiles.