After her son, a military officer in Hizbellah, was killed at the Israeli Air strike in southern Lebanon last year, Umm Hassan made a tail needle of his painting to mark him. When the pain was at the worst case, she told herself that she had chosen this time.
Umm Hassan, 56, was also comforted by the gathering of her granddaughter’s private school thanks to the Hizbollah Martyr’s Foundation. Although not a party member, she said that the group “did not leave anyone behind.”
But her faith was mixed with contempt for Hizbollah’s inflated ranks, with the leaders who kept away from the front and, as she said, included Israeli associates: “It would not be so bad if there were no traitor.”
HizbollahThe most powerful political and military force of Long Lebanon, takes place from the worst defeat. In more than a year conflict Before the break of fire in November, Israel not only killed thousands of fighters and decimated his more leadership, but caused a huge destruction in the communities of the Shiite majority from which Hizbollah attracts support. The fall of Ally Bashara Al-Assad in neighboring Syria was caused by another blow, cutting out the vital chains of supply between Hizbollah and his patron saint Iran.
With a group that is now under pressure, holding faith a component like Umm Hassan is vital to his future. Central in this effort is Hizbollah’s expansion of a network of social welfare organization, including schools, hospitals, and his construction hand of Jihad al-Bin, which deployed hundreds of engineers to explore damaged homes and start repairing their heart.
“Hizbollah questions the questions.
The Financial Times talked to more than 20 people about how Hizbollah shortens their base, including local officials, residents who benefit from the social welfare system of the group and people who know about the thought of the party.
After the last war with Israel in 2006, Hizbollah deepened his support by giving a good procradiate of his longtime leader Hassan Nasrana to renew “better than before.” With funds from Iran, their own commercial companies and the payment of state fees, institutions related to parties have taken on a prominent role in renovation.
But today the organization is facing far greater destruction and without Nasrallah, which Israel killed last year. The Israeli offensive, which began after Hizbollah began shooting rockets across the border after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, culminated in an invasion in October 2024. More than 4,000 people in Lebanon and at least 140 from Israel.
Still, his post -war repair system is in full swing. A committee of a dozen engineers were awarded on the tortured south, every four or five villages, a local official said. These committees have reviewed more than 270,000 homes since the end of January, according to Jihad al-Bank.
After the evaluation of the Jihad Al-Baba Beirut is examined, the residents are told to pick up their damages and bring them to the local Hizbollah al-Qard al-Hassan, of which more than 30 branches have hit Israeli strikes.
In the central market of Baalbek, the paper sign was fluttering from the ruins of what was once one of his offices: “We are glad to welcome you in our branch down the road!”
FT examined the messages sent by the local Hizbollah official at WhatsApp residents in the southern Libanon village: multiple pages of budget tables together with names and registration numbers.
“Hello everyone, these are the names of the people whose checks have arrived,” the official said in the voice note. “You can come pick them up tomorrow morning.”
“And just so no one complains,” Oh, my check hasn’t come, “these are just the checks that have arrived so far,” he continued in a tired voice. “Also, the names that are thrown out are people who are not from[the village]. . . Don’t think I removed a particular person. “
According to Pro-Hizbollah Daily al-Akhbar, the party has shared a pay of a fee of $ 400 million into almost 140,000 people. People who lost their entire homes receive between $ 12,000 and $ 14,000, which had to cover a year of rent elsewhere and destroy furniture.
But the defense officials came because some in Lebanon were outraged by the process. At the heart of Hizbollah in the Valley of Beka, South Lebani and Beirut’s Southern suburbs, both fans and non-Popers described what they considered to be ticklish or slow practices in assessing the damage and compensating them.
Ahmed’s apartment in Baalbek, for example, was destroyed when the Israeli rocket was targeting apartments below, which he said was rented to members of Hizbollah’s military wing.
He was sure the damage was worth at least $ 10,000, but the check that arrived was $ 2,500. Ahmed was furious. “We live in the house, we try to repair what we can alone, but it’s hard – we don’t even have running water,” he said. “We have no trust in the state and hate the parties, but the parties have made us hate the state.”
Many have linked what they considered Hizbollah’s narrow payments in their new geopolitical reality, the cash registers dried after the Israeli offensive and the fall of Assad, which interrupted the Syrian supply routes that connected it to the Iranian so -called resistance axis, of which Hizbollah was once a star.
Others described how Hizbollah had dropped bureaucratic obstacles, such as a request for receipts or vehicles, which residents thought were designed to take so much time to give up. One man said he rejected a $ 905 check, offensively with precise underestimation.
Hizbollah told FT that their “teams were working day and night”. “When people find that there is a problem with the amount of compensation, they are complained and their complaint is considered if it is justified,” said the group. “Everyone will get what they deserve.”
Hizbollah’s bureaucracy, however, was more careful than the state, the inhabitants of the South said. They cited free medical care of the Hizbollah health organizations, and the payment payments were made to displaced throughout the war.
Many say, however, that Hizbollah and her protector Iran do not have the means of reconstruction this time, given the scale of the task. The war caused at least $ 3.4 billion in physical damage to the World Bank. Even Hizbollah’s leader Naim Qassem emphasized the responsibility of the state, saying in December: “Basically, renewal and renewal will be the Government to be followed and we will be with him.”
Last month, Hizbollah also inflicted a political blow by selecting a president and prime minister who is considered to be dedicated to reducing his influence in Lebanon. Their candidates, advocated by the West and the Gulf of Arabic Nations, could help facilitate international funding for renovation for which analysts expect to be diverted from Hizbollah.
But Hizbollah may not be so easy constantly. Hussein Kamaleddine, a local official in the southern village of Srifa, said the local networks of the Group group. The party was careful to set up its users and smoothly did not disagree because she knew the roles, he said.
“Military, they are exhausted,” he said. “They need time. But they have institutions.”
Data visualization by Aditi Bhandari
