What is Hezbollah, the Lebanese group trading fire with Israel?
Hezbollah, which has been trading fire with Israel since the start of the war in Gaza on Oct. 7 between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas.
Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones against Israel on Sunday in retaliation for the assassination of a commander in Beirut, the Iranian-backed movement said. The Israel military said it had thwarted a much larger attack with pre-emptive strikes.
WHAT ARE HEZBOLLAH'S ORIGINS?
Iran's Revolutionary Guards founded Hezbollah in 1982 during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, part of Tehran's effort to export its 1979 Islamic Revolution and fight Israeli forces that had invaded Lebanon in 1982. The group has risen from a shadowy faction to a heavily armed force with big sway in Lebanon and the region. Western governments including the United States designate it a terrorist group. So do Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states including Saudi Arabia.
Hezbollah is a Shi'ite Islamist group and shares the ideology of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
HOW DID HEZBOLLAH GET INVOLVED IN THE GAZA WAR?
Hezbollah is a powerful part of the «Axis of Resistance», an alliance of Iran-backed groups across the Middle East that also includes the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which ignited the Gaza war by attacking Israel on Oct. 7. Declaring solidarity with the Palestinians, Hezbollah began firing on Israeli positions in the frontier region on Oct. 8. The sides have been trading fire on a near daily basis since then, with Hezbollah launching rockets and drones and Israel mounting air and artillery
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