Hezbollah (, literally " Party of Allah " or " Party of God ") is a Shi ' a Islamic militant group and political party based in Lebanon.

Hezbollah first emerged in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, during the Lebanese civil war.

Hezbollah waged an asymmetrical guerrilla war against Israel using suicide attacks against the Israel Defense Forces ( IDF ) and against Israeli targets outside of Lebanon.

At the end of the Lebanese Civil War in 1990, despite the Taif Agreement asking for the " disbanding of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias ," Syria, in control of Lebanon at that time, allowed Hezbollah to maintain their arsenal, and control the Shiite areas in Southern Lebanon along the border with Israel.

Hezbollah regards cultural, political, and religious freedoms in Lebanon as sanctified, although it does not extend these values to groups who have relations with Israel.

A 2003 decision by an American court found IJO was the name used by Hezbollah for its attacks in Lebanon, and parts of the Middle East, and Europe.

Although Hezbollah originally aimed to transform Lebanon into a formal Faqihi Islamic republic, this goal has been abandoned in favor of a more inclusive approach.

Hezbollah says that its continued hostilities against Israel are justified as reciprocal to Israeli operations against Lebanon and as retaliation for what they claim is Israel's occupation of Lebanese territory.

In November 2009, Hezbollah pressured a private English-language school to drop excerpts from The Diary of Anne Frank, a book of the writings from the diary kept by the Jewish child Anne Frank while she was in hiding with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, after Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel complained, asking how long Lebanon would " remain an open arena for the Zionist invasion of education "?

< Blockquote > The supreme decision-making bodies of the Hezbollah were divided between the Majlis al-Shura ( Consultative Assembly ) which was headed by 12 senior clerical members with responsibility for tactical decisions and supervision of overall Hizballah activity throughout Lebanon, and the Majlis al-Shura al-Karar ( the Deciding Assembly ), headed by Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah and composed of eleven other clerics with responsibility for all strategic matters.

Since the Second Lebanon War, however, Iran has restructured Hezbollah to limit the power of Hassan Nasrallah, and invested billions of dollars " rehabilitating " Hezbollah.

Structurally, Hezbollah does not distinguish between its political / social activities within Lebanon and its military / jihad activities against Israel.

Lebanon ’ s majority Shi ' a Islam in Lebanon | Shi ’ a areas as of July 2006, where Hezbollah is most prominent.

Hezbollah alongside with Amal is one of two major political parties in Lebanon that represent the Shiite Muslims.

Hezbollah participates in the Parliament of Lebanon.

A Lebanese public opinion poll taken in August 2006 shows that most of the Shia did not believe that Hezbollah should disarm after the 2006 Lebanon war, while the majority of Sunni, Druze and Christians believed that they should.

* During the 1982 – 2000 South Lebanon conflict, Hezbollah waged a guerrilla campaign against Israeli forces occupying Southern Lebanon.

" Hezbollah held a victory parade, and its popularity in Lebanon rose.

Hezbollah and many analysts considered this a victory for the movement, and since then its popularity has been boosted in Lebanon.

Apparently, the 1993 understanding provided that Hezbollah combatants would not fire rockets at northern Israel, while Israel would not attack civilians or civilian targets in Lebanon.

* In April 1996, after continued Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, the Israeli armed forces launched Operation Grapes of Wrath, which was intended to wipe out Hezbollah's base in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah maintains strong support among Lebanon's Shi ' a population, and is able to mobilize demonstrations of hundreds of thousands.

The ideology of Hezbollah has been summarized as Shi ' i radicalism.

Hezbollah was largely formed with the aid of the Ayatollah Khomeini's followers in the early 1980s in order to spread Islamic revolution and follows a distinct version of Islamic Shi ' a ideology ( Valiyat al-faqih or Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists ) developed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the " Islamic Revolution " in Iran.

... As for our culture, it is based on the Holy Quran, the Sunna and the legal rulings of the faqih who is our source of imitation ...</ div > Hezbollah follows the Islamic Shi ' a theology developed by Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Hezbollah has relied also on funding from the Shi ' ite Lebanese Diaspora in West Africa, the United States and, most importantly, the Triple Frontier, or tri-border area, along the junction of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil.

" Hezbollah, along with the Amal Movement, represents most of Lebanese Shi ' a.

The following day a pro-Syrian demonstration set a new record when Hezbollah amassed 400 – 500 thousand protestors at Riad Solh square in Beirut, most of them bussed in from the heavily Shi ' ite south Lebanon and eastern Beka ' a valley.

The rally was double the size of the mostly Shi ' ite pro-Syrian one organized by Hezbollah the previous week.

Amal and Hezbollah are the main rivals for the organized Shi ' a vote, and the PSP ( Progressive Socialist Party ) is the leading Druze party.

Sadr City then became the main base for Shi ' a Insurgent group Kata ' ib Hezbollah, an offshoot of the Mahdi Army.

The CIA reportedly paid Hobeika ( through Lebanese army intelligence officers ) to assassinate Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of the militant Shi ' ite group Hezbollah because Fadlallah was considered by US officials to have taken part in planning the October 1983 bombing of the US marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 servicemen.

Hezbollah maintains strong support among Lebanon's Shi ' a population, and gained a surge of support from Lebanon's broader population ( Sunni, Christian, Druze ) immediately following the 2006 Lebanon War, and is able to mobilize demonstrations of hundreds of thousands.

Hezbollah receives its financial support from the governments of Iran and Syria, as well as donations from Lebanese people and foreign Shi ' as.

Some have accused him of inconsistency for disarming all Christian and most Muslim militias-but not Hezbollah, a Shi ' a political party.

This attack is suspected to have been carried out by the Lebanon-based Shi ' ite Muslim group of Hezbollah.

* Kata ' ib Hezbollah, also known as Hezbollah Brigades, a Shi ' a Islamist, Insurgent group in Iraq.

* Hezbollah Movement in Iraq is Shi ' a Islamist political party in Iraq aligned with the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq.

Elmasry has written that Hezbollah " is actually a legitimate Lebanese Shi ' a Islam political party organized around a variety of roles and functions, just as are many other political parties.

The Hezbollah Movement in Iraq () is a Shi ' a Islamist, Iraqi political party that is part of the United Iraqi Alliance coalition.

After the War of the Camps, Amal fought a bloody battle against rival Shi ' a group Hezbollah for control of Beirut, which provoked Syrian military intervention.