"They take care of us' Shias put their faith in Hezbollah

When the Sabra family fled bombardments in Israeli the southern Lebanese town of Marjayoun for Beirut's southern suburbs in October last year, a monthly stipend in dollars from Hezbollah meant they did not fear going hungry.

- Ruth Michaelson

When they were displaced a second time, to the mountains around the capital by a wave of Israeli attacks on southern Beirut, regular deliveries of meals, food parcels and even cleaning supplies from organisations connected to the group have kept them afloat.

"They are taking incredible care of us even with everything that is happening," said Hind Sabra, whose name has been changed. Their house of 14 people contains three families, each receiving a $200 monthly stipend in cash as well as cut-price medications, and food parcels containing rice, oil, tuna and beans.

The food, medication and cash are all part of a network of support long maintained by Hezbollah, including a de facto bank that has flourished amid Lebanon's years-long financial crisis, a fund that cares for the families of those killed in battle, and a social care organisation responsible for distributing cash payments to tens of thousands displaced earlier this year, according to a Hezbollah official.

Over the past two decades, Hezbollah has come to dominate the various groups that make up Lebanon's fractured and sectarian politics, as well as exerting control over key industries such as agriculture and construction in the south. Lina Khatib of Chatham House said the group's status had grown to "influence and control the state in Lebanon from within state institutions as well as outside them".