The Islamic Health Organization

*This article is part of a series of articles dealing with the structure of Hezbollah in general with the various councils and the executive council on its various civilian entities in particular (see the introduction here)

The Islamic Health Organization was founded in 1984. According to the organization’s website, its objective is to raise the Shiite population’s standard of living based on the values of Islam. The organization engages in providing first aid, ongoing medical services, and emergency civil defense services (rescue & evacuation, etc.). The organization trains and operates about 90 medical centers, including hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies in the Shiite areas. Among other things, the organization places special emphasis on helping the impoverished Shiite population. The Islamic Health Organization has expertise in all areas of medicine and conducts various informational and training campaigns on topics such as countering the coronavirus, advocacy against smoking, struggle against drugs, AIDS, etc.

website: https://www.hayaa.org/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hayaahealth

Facebook – blocked.

The organization’s Director-General is Dr. Abbas Hebollah, a resident of Beirut. The Islamic Health Organization received an operating license from the Lebanese government in 1988. Subject to the CEO are regional departments (Beirut, Beqaa, Tyre, and Nabatiya) and professional departments in addition to medical centers, such as the Mental Health Department, the Department of Social Medicine (Public Medicine), and the Department of Health Assistance (liaising with specialist doctors).

According to the Center for Intelligence and Terrorism (Meir Amit), Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Organization currently provides medical services to most of Lebanon’s Shiite population, estimated at about two million civilians (out of about four and a half million civilians living in Lebanon).

The Islamic Health Organization has direct and close ties to Hezbollah’s military activity. According to the organization’s website, since its inception, it has been “accompanying Hezbollah combatants’ activities against the Zionist occupation.” The organization routinely assists Hezbollah’s military wing and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards/Quds Force in Lebanon and is part of the human shield tactic. At least 20 of the organization’s operatives are known to have been killed during their service. There is no doubt that the organization’s operatives are currently integrated and will be integrated into any Hezbollah military activity against Israel in the future.

A poster published on the occasion of “Commemoration Day- Alshahid day” (November 2020) illustrates the connection between Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Organization and Hezbollah’s military arm and emphasizes the activities of the health organization’s members within the military wing and the inseparable connection between them.

Hezbollah’s operative Qassem Muhammad Suleiman, who was killed in 2014 during the battles in Syria near the Lebanese border, was also documented wearing an Islamic health organization uniform (on the right: in the Islamic Health Organization uniform. Left: as a military operative. Photo source: “Information and Terrorism Information Center named after Major General Meir Amit”)

The Islamic Health Organization also apparently has ties to the Iranian Red Crescent in Lebanon. According to the article by Dr. Yossi Mansharof, a research fellow at the Alma Center, which we published in June 2020 (“Organizations and Associations in the Service of the Quds Forces in Syria”), the Iranian Red Crescent serves as a cover for the Quds Force and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS), which is widely used to promote Iranian subversion in various countries, including Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen, and Iraq.

The teams dispatched by the Iranian Red Crescent to Lebanon during the war against Israel in 2006, supposedly to aid the civilian population, were actually members of the Quds Force who came to Lebanon to assist Hezbollah. The teams allegedly brought shipments of medical equipment that were actually used as cover for shipments of military equipment and weapons.

Although Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Organization is clearly related to Hezbollah’s military activities, we have not witnessed any sanctions imposed on it by any Western entity (the United States / Europe).