Gulf between Hezbollah and Lebanese state grows wider as Israeli occupation continues

People in south of country rely on group’s longstanding social welfare system that cash-strapped state fails to provide Fatima al-Ashkar used toys to explain to her children that their father had been killed. She arranged toy soldiers in a mock battle and picked up an airplane, miming an air raid on the plastic men below. “I started explaining to them: ‘Israel came and bombed here. Daddy was here. Daddy was martyred. Daddy was protecting us from Israel,’” said al-Ashkar, a 26-year-old resident of Markaba, south Lebanon. Her husband, Mohammed Ali, who was a member of Hezbollah, was killed fighting Israel in the region in early April. But the young widow was not alone in shouldering the burden of her sudden loss. The sophisticated machinery of Hezbollah’s social support system soon stepped in. Hezbollah’s martyr foundation found and furnished an apartment for al-Ashkar and her children in the southern suburbs of Beirut, covering the rent in full. It continues to provide stipends for each child, pay for their school fees and cover all healthcare costs for the family. Every so often, representatives of the foundation will visit al-Ashkar’s home and sit with her and the children for psy