The Iran-backed militants have perhaps the largest arsenal of any armed group in the world, excluding governments, experts say.
Israel’s recent assault on Hezbollah has dealt a blow to the Lebanese militant group, but how big a blow is unclear. This is partly because Hezbollah, like most armed groups, has shrouded its precise military capacity in secrecy. Hezbollah is supported by Iran, which sees it as its most important proxy in the region, and for decades, Tehran has funneled weapons and other military technology to the group.
Here is a look at Hezbollah’s military strength as it wages war against Israel in support of Hamas.
How big is Hezbollah?
The C.I.A. World Factbook estimated in 2024 that Hezbollah had 50,000 armed combatants, although it said that not all were full-time soldiers. That would make it one of the largest militia groups in the region, behind the Houthis, who operate in Yemen and who the C.I.A. estimated had 200,000 fighters in 2022. Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has said that his group has 100,000 trained fighters.
One of Hezbollah’s political objectives, however, is to present itself as a giant capable of going toe-to-toe with Israel, and so Mr. Nasrallah has an interest in maximizing and potentially inflating the group’s size and capability, according to experts. It even opened a museum in southern Lebanon to showcase its fight against Israel.
“It is in Hezbollah’s interest to engage in psychological warfare that amplifies its power and capacity in the face of the enemy,” said Lina Khatib, an associate in the Middle East and North Africa program at the Chatham House research group in London. She said in an interview that Israeli officials had also inflated Hezbollah’s strength to support the country’s recent attacks, some of the heaviest aerial assaults in modern warfare.
What about Hezbollah’s weapons?
Hezbollah has perhaps the largest arsenal of any armed group in the world, excluding governments, according to experts. Aside from machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and mortars, the C.I.A. said, Hezbollah possesses around 150,000 rockets and missiles of various types.
In the past two decades, Hezbollah has “developed elements of a more traditional statelike conventional military force and demonstrated considerable military capabilities,” the C.I.A. said. It sustained huge losses during a conflict with Israel in 2006, but emerged intact, and, since then, its weaponry has grown in size and sophistication, according to experts.
