TPO June 26, 2025
Hezbollah, meaning “God’s Party” in arabic, is a political party and armed militia based in Lebanon, primarly the south. The group’s origins came as a response of israeli occupation of Lebanon in 1982, becoming the heart of lebanese resistance.
Amid the 1985-2000 war, Hezbollah is promiment for confronting the israeli occupation army and acheiving victory against it, causing the collapse of maronite cooperatores Southern “Lebanese” army. Hezbollah and Amal’s hit and run guerrils tactics proved to be effective, causing the enemy army causalties from soldiers and military equipment even outposts were captured ultimately resulting in enemy withdrawal.
2006 Lebanese war remains the group’s greatest acomplishment, in which it was able to confront the israeli enemy and come out victorous. In the first confrontation, Hezbollah was able to kill three soldiers, injure and capture another two soldiers.
There were many confrontations, with the enemy army intensively bombing lebanon, meanwhile Hezbollah continuosly launched rockets towards israel. Hezbollah engaged in guerrilla warfare with IDF ground forces, fighting from well-fortified positions, often in urban areas, and attacking with small, well-armed units. Hezbollah fighters were highly trained, and were equipped with flak jackets, night-vision goggles, communications equipment, and sometimes with Israeli uniforms and equipment. An Israeli soldier who participated in the war said that Hezbollah fighters were “nothing like Hamas or the Palestinians. They are trained and highly qualified. All of us were kind of surprised.”
During engagements with the IDF, Hezbollah concentrated on inflicting losses on the IDF, believing an unwillingness to absorb steady losses to be Israel’s strategic weakness.
Hezbollah countered IDF armor through the use of sophisticated Iranian-made anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). According to Merkava tank program administration, 52 Merkava main battle tanks were damaged (45 of them by different kinds of ATGM), missiles penetrated 22 tanks, but only 5 tanks were destroyed, one of them by an improvised explosive device (IED). The Merkava tanks that were penetrated were predominantly Mark II and Mark III models, but five Mark IVs were also penetrated. All but two of these tanks were rebuilt and returned to service.
The IDF declared itself satisfied with the Merkava Mark IV’s performance during the war. Hezbollah caused additional casualties using ATGMs to collapse buildings onto Israeli troops sheltering inside. As a result, IDF units did not linger in any one area for an extended period of time. Hezbollah fighters often used tunnels to emerge quickly, fire an anti-tank missile, and then disappear again.
On 19 July a force from the Maglan special forces unit seized a fortified Hezbollah dugout adjacent to the Shaked post; two IDF soldiers and five Hezbollah operatives were killed in the battle.
Hezbollah engaged in guerrilla warfare with IDF ground forces, fighting from well-fortified positions, often in urban areas, and attacking with small, well-armed units. Hezbollah fighters were highly trained, and were equipped with flak jackets, night-vision goggles, communications equipment, and sometimes with Israeli uniforms and equipment. An Israeli soldier who participated in the war said that Hezbollah fighters were “nothing like Hamas or the Palestinians. They are trained and highly qualified. All of us were kind of surprised.”
In the latest war, conflict started when enemy forces started the genocidal war on Gaza on 7 october 2023, the following day Hezbollah fired rockets on israel in support of Hamas. The war ultimately led to fierce battles, in the end enemy forces withdrew from Lebanon while mantaining a small occupation force.
Why Hezbollah Checkmates Israel
As a militant group, Hezbollah posseses magnificent military, political and intelligence force, amounting to be the most powerful non state army in the world. The militia is impresively run, they are well trained, armed and prepared, they posses powerful weapons, ranging from artillery, tanks, and most importantly its rocket arsenal is one to look after. Ranging from russian anti cruise ship missiles to chinese and a large variaty of iranian rockets and missiles.
In a geopolitical standpoint, Hezbollah is the most outstanding way to confront israel, its geographical location, natural fortifications and courage. It’s calculated deterrence, regional alliances checkmate israeli military positions, all within the range of iranian missiles in seconds from Southern Lebanon.
As previous estimates by the late Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah amounts to 100,000 fighters, all within range of confronting israel in the border. Through arming Hezbollah, Iran has the possibility to invade israel while being situated distant from eachother. The group has proved its effectual military abilities, forcing the enemy to withdraw various times, including in 2000, 2006 and 2024.
Even as Israel continues to be a regional power, its power has been well diminished and even as Hezbollah lost their long time leader, Late Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah poses a great military power, leadership and infantry force, deterrence and geopolitical potential. In both geopolitical and military viewpoints Hezbollah stands as a bishop on how to easily checkmate israel.
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