Invisible at the battlefield, Hizbullah members are omnipresent in people's lives, covering medical bills, offering health insurance, paying school fees and making seed money available for small businesses, The New York Times reported on Sunday, August 6.

With a salary far lower than average, Ahmed Awali, a 41-year-old security guard, could not afford the $1,500 needed for his wife to deliver their baby. But thanks to the health insurance system introduced by Hizbullah to help the needy for a meager $10 a month, he rejoiced with relatives at the birth of his second daughter. Unidentified Hizbullah members even visited him with bags of groceries.

"They just put it down in the middle of the room and left," said his wife Yusra Haidar. Hizbullah's medical insurance card is acceptable in any hospital across Lebanon. Hizbullah has also saved Haidar Fayadh, a café owner, from insolvency and frustration after an "unfair" electricity bill amounting to thousands of dollars. "Hizbullah intervened for me to get the price down," he said, fiddling with his empty plastic cup.

Hizbullah, established in 1982 to help liberate Lebanon from Israeli occupation, offers extensive civil services in the fields of research, health, education, social welfare, and the media. Hizbullah is also an active participant in Lebanese politics, with 23 seats in the 128-seat legislature. It has one minister in the cabinet, Energy and Water Minister Mohammad Fneish, and it endorses Labor Minister Tarrad Hamadeh.

"Hizbullah is People"

Locals told the American daily that Hizbullah members are lay people, who take up arms when necessary. "Just because I'm sitting here in this café doesn't mean I'm not a resistance fighter," said Fayadh. "Everyone has a weapon in his house," he said, sitting near pictures of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah. "There are doctors, teachers and farmers. Hizbullah is people. People are Hizbullah."

Issam Jouhair, a car mechanic, put it figuratively. "The trees in the south say, 'We are Hizbullah.' The stones say, 'We are Hizbullah'…. If the people cannot talk, the stones will say it," he said emphatically. Hizbullah fighters are a part of the population, and identifying them can be close to impossible. "They are ghosts," said a man who identified himself as Husam. "Nobody knows them."

Several residents who knew Hizbullah members said they get training for up to five years before becoming full-fledged members. The military wing is so secretive that sometimes friends and family members do not know a loved one is a part of it. A man was passing by in a suburb of Tyre in the south with a hand-held radio. Locals say that he is the security chief of Hizbullah in the neighborhood. He refused to identify himself. When asked about Hizbullah in the area, he replied, "Hizbullah is us, from the smallest child to the oldest man."

Source: IslamOnline.net