Hezbollah, the Islamic militant faction that had been quiet for more than two years after suffering a severe blow from the so-called "pager bombing incident" led by Israel in 2024, has reemerged amid the current invasion of Iran.
According to Al Jazeera in the Middle East on the 10th (local time), Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, resumed operations at the end of last month, citing retaliation after the United States and Israel launched a full-scale military operation against Iran. Since then, it has fired a large number of missiles and drones into the area around Haifa, the major city in northern Israel, rallying its forces.
Hezbollah was formed in the early 1980s with support from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It considers the Iranian regime its most solid backer. In September 2024, Israel carried out pager (beeper) bombing operations across Lebanon to annihilate Hezbollah. At the time, hundreds of pagers exploded across Lebanon, leaving more than 4,000 casualties. Israel intercepted 5,000 pagers that Hezbollah had ordered earlier that year to avoid wiretapping and eavesdropping and conducted a spy movie–like operation by inserting explosives and remote controls.
According to Reuters, Hezbollah fighters have completely stopped using communications equipment such as pagers or mobile phones this time to avoid getting caught up again in such operations. The organization also decided to employ traditional guerrilla tactics, moving strictly in small-unit cells rather than in a regular army format in which thousands move at once.
Major clashes are concentrated in the Khiam area, where the borders of Lebanon, Israel, and Syria meet. It is considered the most likely route for an Israeli ground force incursion. Fighters from Radwan, Hezbollah's most elite special forces unit, are also returning one after another to the south, from which they withdrew after the 2024 cease-fire, to prepare for guerrilla warfare.
Citing experts, Reuters said, "Hezbollah is preparing for an Israeli ground invasion in a cellular structure, taking to heart the painful lessons of the 2024 pager bombing incident," and "is strictly controlling the use of major weapons such as anti-tank rockets and preparing for a prolonged war." Media outlets in the Middle East, including in Lebanon, reported that Hezbollah has assigned four deputy commanders to each commander so that even if a chief commander is killed by an Israeli airstrike, the chain of command can be succeeded in order, effectively burning the boats.
Other pro-Iran armed groups, which had been assessed as entering a state of collapse under Israeli airstrikes and leadership assassination operations, are also regrouping amid the current Iranian offensive. As Hezbollah continues to strike northern Israel and widen the front, the coalition of pro-Iran militant factions, with Iran as its central axis, is regrouping strongly under the banner of defending the Iranian regime. Both the Yemeni Houthi rebels and the remaining elements of the Palestinian militant faction Hamas, which had been catching their breath, are showing signs of moving again. Airstrikes by the United States and Israel targeting the heart of Iran have, paradoxically, awakened the remnants of militant factions that had been lying low.
Researchers at the Sanaa Center in Yemen said on the 6th, "If Iran maintains strategic initiative against U.S. and Israeli attacks, armed groups such as the Houthis or Hezbollah could further intensify military actions in line with a protracted war of attrition." The Washington Stimson Center, a U.S. think tank, also said in an analysis report released after the United States began airstrikes on Iran, "The Houthis stand at a critical crossroads over whether to adhere to their usual ideology or hide to avoid the United States and Israel." The report added, "Unless they make a strategic choice to completely abandon Iran, the Houthi rebels are very likely to soon join a full-scale war."
Security experts assessed that Hezbollah's return to guerrilla warfare and the revival of militant factions are pushing the Middle East war into a more complex and less controllable phase. Instead of engaging in a full-scale war with the Israeli military armed with advanced precision strike weapons, they employ asymmetric guerrilla tactics at which they are most adept to maximize the opponent's fatigue.
An Israeli government official told the Times of Israel, "To free residents in northern Israel from constant evacuation fears, we must inflict a fatal blow on Hezbollah," adding, "We could carry Hezbollah-related military operations beyond the Iran war." This suggests Israel could continue a long confrontation with Hezbollah even after wrapping up the war with Iran.