Hezbollah fires rockets at Israel in retaliation for earlier strikes

Hezbollah have fired a series of rockets at Israel, in retaliation to earlier IDF strikes, which killed 10 people in the south of Lebanon yesterday. Several rockets struck Kiryat Shmona, causing damage, Israeli medics and police say.

Hezbollah said that the attack formed a "preliminary response" to Israel's bombardment in Lebanon yesterday, which they claim killed 10 civilians, including five children.

This would make it the deadliest attack in four month of hostilities.

Sources in Lebanon have told Reuters that an Israeli strike killed seven civilians, including three children, in the city of Nabatieh yesterday evening. That followed an attack that killed a woman and her two children in the village of al Sawana, near the border with Israel, they say.

Israeli officials claim that one of those killed in the attacks was the commander of Hezbollah's Radwan Forces. They also claim that they fired after an IDF soldier was killed in Northern Israel yesterday morning.

Who are Hezbollah?

Hezbollah, roughly translated to 'Party of Allah', or 'Party of God' are a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament.

Hezbollah was created following the 1982 Lebanon War, and has been led since 1992 but its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.

They have maintained close ties with Iran, and was formed with the support of 1,500 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps instructors. This group are a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces.

Hezbollah's 1985 manifesto listed its objectives as the expulsion of "the Americans, the French and their allies definitely from Lebanon, putting an end to any colonialist entity on our land".

The entire organisation, or only their military wing, has been designated a terrorist organisation by many countries, including the European Union. Since 2017, most member states of the Arab League also designated them as terrorists, with two exceptions, Iran and Iraq.

Hezbollah officials have said that they are only "anti-Zionist", but not anti-Semitic. However, they actively engage in Holocaust denial, and a spokesperson has called for the "the Jews who survive" their hoped liberation of Palestine to "go back to Germany or wherever they came from", and has said that those Jews who lived in Palestine before 1948 may be "allowed to live as a minority".

Funding of Hezbollah comes from the Iranian government, Lebanese business groups, private persons, businessmen, the Lebanese diaspora involved in African diamond exploration, other Islamic groups and countries, and the taxes paid by the Shia Lebanese. Hezbollah says that the main source of its income comes from its own investment portfolios and donations by Muslims.

Western sources maintain that Hezbollah actually receives most of its financial, training, weapons, explosives, political, diplomatic, and organizational aid from Iran and Syria.

Iran is said to have given $400 million between 1983 and 1989 through donations. During the late 1980s, when there was extreme inflation due to the collapse of the Lira, it was estimated that Hezbollah was receiving $3–5 million per month from Iran.

Hezbollah are allied with Iran, Syria, North Korea, Lebanon, Russia, Houthis, Hamas, and the Wagner Group. Their state opponents are Israel and Turkey, while they are also opposed to Al-Qaeda and ISIS.