Hezbollah can recover after its costly war with Israel, senior official says

Middle East Eye

2 days ago

Hezbollah can recover from the heavy military defeat it suffered at the hands of Israel because it still has the backing of the Lebanese people, Ibrahim Mousawi, a sitting MP from Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, has told Middle East Eye.
Speaking in the Lebanese capital Beirut, Mousawi, a member of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, however, accepted that Hezbollah was facing several hurdles after much of its leadership was wiped out, and after it lost control of key assets such as Beirut airport and smuggling routes along the Syrian border.
"Everybody knows we are in a difficult situation," Mousawi said.
"[But how] did we start the resistance? We built it ourselves little by little. It is one of the miracles of history, the sacrifice for our land. It's very difficult and [we are in] tough times - but we will continue to struggle," he added.
On 8 October 2023, a day after Israel launched its war on Gaza, Hezbollah opened a limited battlefront with Israel in support of Hamas and Palestinians under attack in the besieged enclave.
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For nearly a year, the conflict was mostly limited to clashes in the border areas between Lebanon and Israel. But in September, Israel exploded thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah members before launching a widespread bombing campaign across the country followed by a ground invasion.
Dozens of villages were erased and more than 3,900 Lebanese killed, including the group's charismatic and long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah.
After Hezbollah signed up to a lopsided ceasefire on 27 November, Israel has repeatedly flaunted its dominance over Lebanon by occupying five strategic points in the south.
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It has also repeatedly carried out air strikes on areas in the south and in late March, conducted its first raid on Beirut in four months.
According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED), an American NGO which tracks violence, Israel carried out at least 330 aerial attacks between 27 November and 10 January 2025, destroying at least 260 properties in the first 60 days of the truce.
Mousawi said that Hezbollah was shouldering its responsibility towards Lebanon and covering the costs of rehousing southerners made homeless by Israel's war.
He said the movement had spent more than $1bn on rents and salaries for those displaced by the violence.
"We have done a great part in the recovery process," he said.
"It's not there yet and in some aspects it is not estimated that we will [get back to where we were]," he added.
'The Israelis want our land'
Mousawi said that despite the destruction, which saw countless social, financial and medical Hezbollah-run institutions destroyed, the movement would continue to remain active and resist Israeli expansionism.
"When you lose one battle, the important thing to recognise is that the environment of resistance is still there and so is Hezbollah's social matrix," he said.
"Why do we have a resistance? Because the Israelis want our land. When you don't have a strong army to defend you, and America continues to deprive the Lebanese army of the means to defend itself, you are left with no other option than resistance," Mousawi added.
While Israel is yet to complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon, which was scheduled under the terms of the ceasefire for 18 February, Mousawi confirmed that Hezbollah had handed over its arms and pulled back its forces from their positions south of the Litani River in accordance with UN Resolution 1701 passed after their previous war with Israel in 2006.
But he denied the movement was in talks with Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president and former chief of staff of the Lebanese army to hand over the rest of its arsenal of heavy weapons.
"Hezbollah has handed over its arms south of the Litani [River]. When you talk about other arms, this is a sovereign discussion which is going to be discussed at a national level.
"This is something for the Lebanon president who is prudent. The way he is handling the issues, it gives you an indication of what kind of man he is."
Mousawi framed those discussions as Hezbollah's part in a "National Strategy Security Plan" to make sure that Lebanon can defend itself.
Mousawi also heaped praise on the Lebanese army, despite it choosing to sit out Israel's war and battles with Hezbollah.
"Who are the Lebanese army? They are brave people," he said.
"My father was in the Lebanese army. My brother was in the Lebanese army. Some of them are martyrs but they are not being given the orders to fight and they don't have the equipment.
"Our Lebanese army are strong and brave and they can do the mission if they have the right orders. We will be with them, the people of the land."
'We will work with anyone against Israel'
Still, Mousawi was bitterly critical of the committee chaired by US General Jasper Jeffers, whose job it is to monitor the ceasefire, which he said gave Israel the scope to continue carrying out attacks in the south of the country.
"We are under some kind of American mandate. This can give Lebanon scores of issues, but one thing I am sure of, the Americans won't succeed."
Mousawi also said the fall of Syria's former president, Bashar al-Assad, presented a major change in the balance of power.
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"What happened in Syria is a major loss for the axis of resistance," he said. "It was in power for nearly 60 years and it went in days and hours."
Syrian rebels, led by the now dissolved Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), seized the capital Damascus early on 7 December, as Assad fled to Russia, ending more than five decades of brutal dynastic rule.
In the space of 10 days, the rebels captured Aleppo, Hama and Homs, with little resistance from demoralised Syrian troops.
Assad's forces also pulled out of Deir Ezzor in the east, which was then taken by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces.
When asked whether Hezbollah would work with President Ahmed al-Sharaa or any future Syrian administration, Mousawi said the Shia movement was prepared to "work with anyone against Israel".
But he said there were certain new realities that Sharaa would have to face.
"I believe that no ruler, no president can oppose the unanimous will of his people. We believe in Arab nationalism. Let us hope that Syria will stay in the right position to be part of those who oppose the occupation.
"In Hezbollah we are open to anyone to gain arms to oppose Israel. This is a period of rebuilding your capabilities in order to come back to your previous strength. Israel cannot get a hold of this region. The soul of revolution will always fight back," he added.
'No one in the camps is giving up their arms'
Separately, a Palestinian source in southern Lebanon told MEE that whilst Hezbollah fighter fought bravely on the ground, the blows it received in Beirut and elsewhere "had a huge effect" on its fighting units.
"Many of the fighters fled with their families, which gave Hezbollah an indication that they could not hold their positions on the ground much longer," the source, who is close to resistance groups, said.
"Hezbollah were desperate to sign the ceasefire agreement because they could not have held on for even one month longer."
'The arms are a symbol of our cause and our resistance. The moment we give up our arms, is the moment we have given up our cause'
- Palestinian Islamic Jihad source
In April, a Hezbollah source told the AFP news agency that the movement had ceded 190 out of 265 military positions south of the Litani River to the Lebanese army.
Meanwhile, informed sources outside of Hezbollah told MEE that the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon was a long way off, despite Washington imposing excessive pressure on the Lebanese government.
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas was recently in Beirut on a three-day mission, and Palestinian and Lebanese sources told MEE that the trip was intimately tied to disarming Palestinian factions in the country's refugee camps.
After meeting President Aoun, a joint statement released on the Lebanese presidency's X (formerly Twitter) account said there was a commitment by "both sides to the principle that all weapons in the country must be controlled by state authorities'.
However, several sources told MEE that Palestinian factions, who largely posses a range of light to medium weapons, would refrain from relinquishing their weapons due to fears of potential massacres.
This was confirmed by interviews MEE conducted in Beirut's Burj al-Barajneh camp.
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Palestinians in Lebanon vividly remember the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, when Israel-backed Christian Lebanese militiamen killed between 800 and 3,500 civilians, mostly women, children, and the elderly.
"No one in the camps is giving up their arms," Zaki, a man affiliated with Islamic Jihad, told MEE.
"The arms are a symbol of our cause and our resistance. The moment we give up our arms, is the moment we have given up our cause. All factions of the resistance received a hit but will come back much stronger, as they have done in the past."
A Palestinian academic source summed up the mood of all Palestinian factions in the camps, telling MEE: "How is it only the question of Palestinian arms?"
"All the main political parties, even the Druze, have their own arms," he said.
"If every single party has its own arms, what is the problem of Palestinians defending themselves?
"Palestinians don't have heavy weapons. So let us talk about the problem of arms in the whole of the Lebanese community before we talk about any one group disarming," he added.