Dr. Abbas Hobballah, general director of the Islamic Health Organization (right) at the ceremony of signing the cooperation protocol between the Lebanese University’s Faculty of Agriculture and the Islamic Health Organization (website of the Lebanese University, December 20, 2018)
Rescue and firefighting course for the first aid team of the Kafra municipality, southern Lebanon. The course is held by the Department of the South in the Islamic Health Organization’s Civil Defense Department, at the organization’s training camp in Kafra (Facebook page of the Islamic Health Organization, July 4, 2019)
Operatives of the Islamic Health Organization participating in the funerals of Hezbollah shahids.
Operatives of the Islamic Health Organization participating in the funerals of Hezbollah shahids.
Hezbollah military wing operatives donating blood as part of a blood donation campaign of the Islamic Health Organization on the 2018 Ashura Day (Twitter account of Al-Manar correspondent Ali Shueib)
Photo from the workshop on mine risks. The emblem of Hezbollah’s Foundation for the Wounded appears on the lecturer’s shirt, with the inscription “The Program for Increasing Awareness of the Risks of Mines, Cluster Bombs and Unexploded Ordnance” (Facebook page of the Islamic Health Organization, June 20, 2019)
Lebanese Health Minister Dr. Jamil Jabak delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the 8th Science Day of the Western Bekaa Hospital, an Islamic Health Organization hospital (Facebook page of the Islamic Health Organization, July 4, 2019)
Overview
- Hezbollah maintains an extensive network of social institutions among the Shiite community in Lebanon. These institutions deal with healthcare, education, finance, welfare, and media. They support Hezbollah’s military infrastructure and strengthen Hezbollah’s influence in the Shiite community in Lebanon.
- These institutions provide the Shiite community with large-scale social services that are generally provided by the state while exploiting the weakness of the Lebanese central administration and its long-standing neglect of the Shiite community. Thus, Hezbollah’s civilian infrastructure enables it to maintain a sort of Shiite mini-state within large parts of Lebanon where there is a Shiite population. The residents of this “Shiite mini-state” enjoy large-scale Iranian financial support and Hezbollah’s military infrastructure is located among them, comprising what Hezbollah refers to as a “Resistance Society.”
One of the most important social institutions is the Islamic Health Organization, which provides medical services to Hezbollah operatives and the entire Shiite population. This organization, which is subordinate to Hezbollah’s Executive Council, has an extensive network of hospitals, medical centers and clinics among the Shiite population throughout Lebanon (mainly in southern Lebanon). This medical infrastructure provides medical services to nearly two million people, i.e., most of the Shiite residents of Lebanon. These services are either subsidized or provided free of charge, so they are most attractive in a country where medical services are very expensive. Apparently, the Islamic Health Organization is not included on the list of Hezbollah’s institutions sanctioned by the United States.
Right: Emblem of the Islamic Health Organization (website of the Islamic Health Organization). Left: Shahid Salah Ghandour Hospital in the village of Bint Jbeil (website of the Islamic Health Organization). Salah Ghandour was a Hezbollah operative who carried out a suicide bombing with a car bomb against an IDF convoy at the entrance to Bint Jbeil (1995). At the entrance to the hospital, there is a sign with flags of Lebanon and Hezbollah and a photo of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
- In addition to the services which it provides to the entire population, the Islamic Health Organization constitutes part of the civilian infrastructure supporting Hezbollah’s military activity. Operatives of the health organization provide medical services to Hezbollah operatives (ongoing services and emergencies) and operate an ambulance fleet that serves the military units. Some of them are uniformed Hezbollah operatives. At least 20 operatives of the Islamic Health Organization were killed either while engaged in medical activity or while carrying out military missions.
Right: The shahid Qassem Mohammad Suleiman in the Islamic Health Organization’s uniform. Left: The shahid Qassem Suleiman in Hezbollah’s military uniform (Facebook). Qassem Suleiman, born in the town of Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, was killed in 2014 fighting near the border between Syria and Lebanon.
- The establishment of an extensive infrastructure of hospitals, medical centers, and clinics involves major one-time investments and major expenses for ongoing operations (salaries, medications, construction, social insurance, instruction, periodic health campaigns among the residents, and more). In the ITIC’s assessment, the ongoing expenses amount to tens of millions of dollars a month mostly financed by Iran as part of the overall annual budget allocated to Hezbollah by Iran.
Structure of the study
- The study includes the following sections:
- The Islamic Health Organization: an overview
- Organizational structure and geographic deployment
- The Islamic Health Organization’s spheres of activity
- Main hospitals of the Islamic Health Organization
- The Islamic Health Organization’s scope of activity
- The Islamic Health Organization in support of Hezbollah’s military wing
- Funding the Islamic Health Organization
- Cooperation with Hezbollah’s other civilian institutions
- Ties with the Lebanese government
- Joint activity with Iranian medical institutions
- Appendix: The ITIC’s publications on Hezbollah’s civilian infrastructure
