Hezbollah is not Hamas: reasonable similarities, different realities, common enemies
Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi on Wednesday expressed what analysts have suspected and the international community has feared for weeks. The airstrikes on Lebanon are a prelude to a potential ground incursion . “You can hear the planes up there, we attack all day long. This is how we prepare the ground for your possible entry and, at the same time, we continue to hurt Hezbollah,” he said. This would put the Hebrew state in an open war on two fronts: Hamas on one front and Hezbollah on the other. Organizations that have many reasonable similarities, although the background and circumstances – social, economic and military – of each of them are very different.
On October 7, 2023, many things changed. Hamas launched the Al-Aqsa Flood , an operation unprecedented in its precision, planning, and cruelty . It all began with the launching of more than 3,000 rockets into Israeli territory, followed by well-organized and armed groups of militants who entered Jewish territory, where they mercilessly murdered civilians and military personnel they encountered in their path.
That day, with more than 760 civilians killed, was the darkest in Israel’s history due to the number of casualties suffered. Many of them were young people participating in a music festival, mostly of moderate tendencies and even critics of the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu . There were also more than 350 soldiers killed and 240 hostages taken, some later returned by the terrorists themselves, others freed by the troops in Jerusalem, several dead or murdered. Nearly a hundred are still in the hands of the terrorists and their fate is unknown.
The conflict has deepened with the escalation of hostilities between Hezbollah militias operating in southern Lebanon and Israeli forces, a conflict parallel to but connected to the one in Gaza. The historic operations of the Mossad intelligence service, which simultaneously detonated the pagers and walkie-talkies of Hezbollah militants and collaborators in Lebanon, led to the predictable response in the form of barrages of missiles. This was followed by Israeli bombings on Lebanese territory, which have already reached the capital, Beirut, with hundreds of dead and thousands wounded. The course of events could lead to a confrontation on a scale not seen since the 1970s .
Many analysts warn that Iran’s interests are behind this conflict (or are perceived to be). The October 7 coup was not only symbolic – just one day after the anniversary of the Yom Kippur War – but also geopolitical. Tehran fears the growing rapprochement between Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, and the State of Israel, under the US diplomatic umbrella of the so-called Abraham Accords (which had already been signed by the Emirates, Sudan, Bahrain and Morocco to normalize relations with the Hebrew country).
The Ayatollahs’ regime is also considered a benefactor of both Hamas and Hezbollah (although they deny it). A religious and diplomatic contortion that can only be explained by the fact that they are fighting a common enemy.
Reasonable similarities, disparate beliefs
Hamas is the acronym for Harakat al-Muqáwama al-Islamiya , which means Islamic Resistance Movement . They are radical Islamists affiliated with the Sunni branch , whose referent is Saudi Arabia; and they are opposed to the Shiite faction, represented by Iran. Both disagree on who is the legitimate successor of the prophet Muhammad. Its origins date back to 1987, as a split from the Muslim Brotherhood, after they began their fight in Egypt and Syria. And because they are Sunni, they have strong ties with the Islamic State, Al Qaeda and the Sunni groups in Lebanon.
There are experts who maintain – and there is evidence – that Hamas was a creation of the Mossad, which was interested in promoting and financing a group opposed to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in order to weaken the then hegemonic position of Yasser Arafat ‘s party . This, which both Israel and Hamas itself deny, would establish a certain parallelism with Al Qaeda, which was originally promoted by the United States to weaken the Soviet position in Afghanistan.
Hezbollah (ḥizbu-‘llāh) means Party of God and is an organisation based in Lebanon which, like its allies in Gaza, has a political and a military branch . The organisation was established in 1992, although its roots go back to the civil war of 1975 and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It is a Shiite group and therefore receives all its support from Iran. Western intelligence estimates that Tehran sends the organisation around 1 billion dollars annually. Its paramilitary arm is considered (or was) one of the most powerful and organised in the world.
While Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and other Western countries, the European Union considers only its military wing to be a terrorist organisation. This is not the case with Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organisation by most Western countries (EU, US, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina, among others).
One of the common facets of both groups is that, apart from their political and military aspects, they constitute important social organisations in the territories in which they operate. Both use the same concept of assistance to the population in various facets, channelled towards supporters and their families, creating a network of loyalties and support, based on religious and ideological radicalisation . Obviously, the scale at which Hezbollah operates doubles that of Hamas (the population of Lebanon is 5.5 million vs. about 2 million in the Gaza Strip).
These organisations use part of their funding to build schools, provide housing, education and healthcare to their members and networks. Special attention is paid to martyrs or shahid , militiamen killed in actions against Israel or on other fronts (even when fighting among themselves in other conflicts, such as in Syria) and they ensure that their loved ones do not lack housing, food or work. This has led to them having solid support in their areas of influence and many young people seeing joining their ranks as a way out of poverty and achieving social recognition.
Radically different fronts
So far, all the reasonable similarities between two organizations fighting against the Jewish state are evident. But in military terms, we are talking about two very different fronts. They are two organizations with very different capabilities and operating in totally different environments. First, in geographical terms. Hamas is completely conditioned by its operation in disputed or occupied territories , and a very limited area over which Israel can establish relatively easy control . Both the Gaza Strip (360 km2) and the West Bank (5,860 km2) are closely monitored by Hebrew forces.
This does not prevent the group from maintaining high levels of paramilitary and terrorist activity, especially in Gaza. But always in a context of surveillance and pressure. But it also limits the ability of the Islamists to move to the rear or to go abroad, immersed in a perpetual urban combat , where Israel’s technological and military superiority is even more evident. The border between Gaza and the West Bank totals 358 kilometres (disputed), while it shares only 79 km with Lebanon.
The main problem for Hamas in Gaza – and even more so in the West Bank – is that its connections with the outside world are tightly controlled by Jerusalem, which greatly complicates its logistics and supplies. Funding can come through multiple channels, but not arms shipments. This means that it receives less sophisticated equipment, in smaller volumes and in smaller quantities than Hezbollah. Before the outbreak of hostilities, it could be estimated that there were some 20,000 militants in its ranks with very different levels of involvement and training (although there are sources that reduce this figure to half and others that double it).
As weapons, they use unguided rockets due to economic limitations and technological deficiencies. Unguided rockets do not have any advanced elements, they are easy to obtain and shipments are not as easy to track as precision weapons. They are simple to manufacture and operate , and have the tactical advantage that, once launched, their location is no longer of interest as they are abandoned and are single-use.
They use models of indigenous manufacture (with Iranian advice), such as the Qassam, which uses a solid fuel propulsion system based on mixing sugar with potassium nitrate, which gives a good idea of the technological level at which the jihadist group operates. The warheads are usually composed of conventional explosives plus a fragmentation charge based on ball bearings and even screws and scrap metal. Various types of unguided rockets of military origin are also being used, some of considerable size, such as the Fajr-5, manufactured by Iran and weighing almost a ton.
Another league
Hezbollah has (or had) a relatively easier time operating in a country like Lebanon , with all the requirements of a state and where its political wing successfully participates in elections, participating in the government and institutions in the allotted proportion. With external borders and a territory further from Israeli control (it has since been seen that not so far), its military power is far superior to that of Hamas.
While when we talk about Hamas we cannot help but refer to a guerrilla group, Hezbollah has a real army. The available numbers vary greatly depending on the source, but they could exceed 60,000 fighters . They have a real arsenal and have not only a large quantity of light weapons, but also heavy weapons such as armoured vehicles and artillery. They form a real military force parallel to the government armed forces and, in some areas, such as the whole of southern Lebanon , they have de facto military and operational control. Nothing moves there without Hezbollah’s consent or, at least, its knowledge.
They have a wide variety of anti-tank missiles and weapons, some quite sophisticated, such as the Russian-made Kornet missiles; anti-aircraft systems, such as the ZSU-23 (quad-mount 23mm guns), and several types of MANPAD-type anti-aircraft missiles , such as the SA-7 and SA-18. They may even have obtained some anti-ship missiles, such as the Chinese-made C-802. They are also estimated to be equipped with a huge arsenal of rockets and missiles of all types, including long-range models (about 150,000, according to Israeli sources).
Israel knows that Hezbollah is not Hamas, but it has shown that it has infiltrated and monitored the organization by its intelligence services. It is not clear how the search operation and subsequent Israeli airstrikes have affected the group’s chain of command, logistics and arsenal, but the blow has been highly significant. For some, the prelude to something bigger.
Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi on Wednesday expressed what analysts have suspected and the international community has feared for weeks. The airstrikes on Lebanon are a prelude to a potential ground incursion . “You can hear the planes up there, we attack all day long. This is how we prepare the ground for your possible entry and, at the same time, we continue to hurt Hezbollah,” he said. This would put the Hebrew state in an open war on two fronts: Hamas on one front and Hezbollah on the other. Organizations that have many reasonable similarities, although the background and circumstances – social, economic and military – of each of them are very different.
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