(bombs exploding). (camera person exclaiming). - [Narrator] Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah are on the brink of an all-out war. After an attack that left 12 dead at a soccer field in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights, Hezbollah denied any involvement. Israel launched a retaliatory attack targeting one of Hezbollah's top military leaders in the capital city of Beirut just days later. The escalation comes after decades of simmering conflict along Israel's northern border. In that time, Hezbollah, a US designated terror organization, has grown from a small militia to a powerful military and political force in the Middle East. Here's how Hezbollah built its arsenal and influence, and what the continued fighting could mean for the region. (bombs exploding). To understand how Hezbollah amassed its power, we have to look back five decades and beyond Lebanon's borders to Israel and Iran. In 1979, Iran was in the aftermath of a revolution.

that installed Ayatollah Khomeini as Iran's first supreme leader
of the Islamic Republic. Khomeini wanted to unify Islamic groups throughout the Middle East. - One of the bedrocks of the Islamic Republic
was not only the idea of a revolution within Iran, but the whole idea was to
export this revolution. - [Narrator] Matthew Levitt is a former counter-terrorism expert for the FBI, State
Department, and US Treasury, and is currently a fellow
at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. - And so they looked first to countries where there are decent
size Shia minorities. - [Narrator] One of these was Lebanon where a conflict had broken out between Israel and Palestinian fighters. - There were secular Palestinian
groups who were kicked out of Jordan and made their way to Lebanon and were using Southern
Lebanon as a launching pad to carry out attacks against Israel. - Israel first invaded
Lebanon back in 1978 after an attack by Palestinian
militants that killed dozens

of Israeli civilians. And in response, Israel
invaded southern Lebanon, and the conflict led to hundreds
of deaths among Lebanese. Then four years later, in 1982, Israel invaded southern
Lebanon again as a result of skirmishes across the border. - [Narrator] The Shiites were one of several conflicting religious
groups involved in a civil war in the country, and some of its militant
factions started accepting support from Iran. - Iran provided intelligence. It provided more arms. It provided funds. By 1982, Iran is sending
people across Iraq and Syria to the Becca Valley, and they're establishing
in a barracks there, a training place in Lebanon. - [Narrator] And as resources poured in, these Shiite factions became more organized. - Originally, the idea was
really just to create an umbrella for these groups, but really
it ended up becoming a much more structured, hierarchical organization that became known as Hizballah.

Literally, the party of God. - [Narrator] Hezbollah released
its first manifesto in 1985. - The idea, as it's made very, very clear in the open
letter, that this new group Hezbollah takes direction
from, pledges fealty to Iran, sees the supreme leader of Iran as their leader, and the mouthpiece of God on Earth, sees the United States and French, France specifically, but Western General as the reason for all the world's ills, is
committed to the destruction of the state of Israel, and is against any idea
of negotiating with it. - [Narrator] Though Hezbollah has become less dependent on Iran in recent years, as of 2022,
it still received the bulk of its operating budget from Iran. A number of the US State
Department estimates to be in the hundreds
of millions of dollars, but Iran isn't the group's
only source of support. It's also allied with Syria.

- You know, if you look at the map, Syria is strategically located. It kind of surrounds Lebanon
to the west and north. Syria became a very, very important part of the development of Hezbollah over the years, provided headquarters for Hezbollah in Syria,
provided their own weapons, and certainly facilitated the
provision of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah through Syria. - [Narrator] These relationships have helped Hezbollah build up its arsenal, which includes a
number of sophisticated weapons. - Hezbollah uses this arsenal to occasionally prod Israel in sort of cross-border skirmishes, but it also uses this as deterrents. The Israelis know that
if they attack Lebanon, or for that matter, Iran,
Hezbollah has missiles that can reach Tel Aviv, and they have tens of thousands of them. - [Narrator] As Hezbollah's
military power has grown, so has its political influence. - It's important to
remember that in addition to being militia, Hezbollah
is also a political party.

that seeks to carry favor
with voters in Lebanon and its Shiite constituents. - [Narrator] Leading that
effort is its longtime leader. - Since 1992, the leader of Hezbollah and Secretary General has
been Hassan Nasrallah, who is a charismatic figure among Lebanese and a trusted ally of Iran. (Hassan speaking in foreign language) (crowd cheers) - [Narrator] In 1992, Hezbollah also took on an
official role in Lebanon's government with members
participating in elections and winning for the first time. - Lebanon's political system
is divided into the three main religious sects in the country: The Sunnis, the Shi'as,
and the Christians. Hezbollah, as one of the main Shi'a groups,
commands a disproportionate amount of power. - Hezbollah being apart
from the government can make its own decisions. What is it an organization want, and then it can task its members
who are parliamentarians.

its members who are ministers or of other positions in government or in the military to do what
they can to implement those. - [Narrator] Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah has become intertwined with the social fabric of Lebanon. - Hezbollah, over the years, has become increasingly
involved in delivering social services. It runs schools, it runs hospitals, it builds infrastructure,
it trains farmers, and all this has helped
Hezbollah cast itself as sort of an alternative to the actual
government in Lebanon. - If you are getting
your child free education and your child gets one hot
meal a day at school from Hezbollah, you're probably
gonna vote for Hezbollah. - To help bolsters public standing, Hezbollah also runs
extensive media operations. It has various media outlets and an army of journalists
who travel with its fighters to the front where it reports
on skirmishes with Israel. - What Hezbollah does through
this is build grassroots support, but also builds
up what it calls a culture

of resistance. It's critical for Hezbollah
to make people feel that there's something
they need to resist. - [Narrator] War broke out in 2006 after Hezbollah fighters abducted Israeli soldiers across the border. - Several hundred people
were killed in this conflict, primarily Lebanese, and
this spurred Hezbollah and Iran to expand on
the groups, the military. And since then,
Hezbollah's missile arsenal has grown almost tenfold. - [Narrator] Then in 2013, when it publicly joined
the Syrian civil War, defending the regime of Bashar all Assad. - Through their presence, it
has become an even more trusted ally of Iran, but it's also strengthened relations with other Iranian allies. - [Narrator] As Hezbollah's
influence has grown, so has tension in the region.
(weapon explodes) Israel and Hezbollah have
regularly exchanged fire after the October 7th attacks by Hamas. (weapons firing)
(bombs exploding)

Israel's military said it believed the strike in the Golan Heights in July was carried out by Hezbollah. It also said it was the largest civilian casualty event in Israel since October 7th. Israel authorized a retaliatory attack the following day as the US and other countries attempted to de-escalate the situation. We're in conversations with the government of Israel, and again, I emphasize its right to defend its citizens and our determination to make sure that they're able to do that. But we also don't wanna see the conflict escalate. We don't wanna see it spread, that has been one of our goals from day one, from October 7th on. But the conflict has continued to escalate. (sirens blaring)

How Hezbollah Came to Power in the Middle East | WSJ

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