Hezbollah is rearming with Iranian cash for a possible new war with Israel, Lebanese sources tell Reuters

Hezbollah is using the quiet since June to get ready for another war.

Lebanese security personnel briefed on the group's activities told Reuters that Hezbollah has spent three months preparing for a possible resumption of hostilities with Israel, and that Tehran has sent it fresh money to do the work. Two Lebanese security sources said the rearmament concentrates on procuring explosives and on producing drones that can be flown into Israeli positions. One of those sources, and another person close to Hezbollah, said the group received tens of millions of dollars from Iran to boost its military capabilities. That money sits on top of about $200 million Tehran sent earlier to aid displaced families in the group's Shiite heartlands, which Reuters reported earlier this month.

The sources said the group is also restoring the command and control structures that broke down in key battles. One security source and three other security officials familiar with the group's operations described that rebuilding work to Reuters.

The preparations run against the state of the group itself. Hezbollah, which Iran's Revolutionary Guards founded in 1982, took severe blows in two wars with Israel since 2024. Thousands of its fighters and many of its leaders were killed, and much of its arsenal was destroyed. Israeli forces now occupy the group's heartland villages in southern Lebanon, and political pressure has built in Beirut for Hezbollah to disarm. The lull since June is the first long pause the group has had to rebuild, and the sources say it is using the pause for exactly that.

Hezbollah's media office answered Reuters' questions by saying that Israel's occupation of Lebanese land makes resistance to it a legitimate right. The office rejected the suggestion that the group's command and control systems had broken down. Israel's military declined to comment, and Iran's permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters.

The rebuilding matters beyond Lebanon's border. American forces are in place to strike Iran within days of a presidential order, and a rearmed Hezbollah gives Tehran a second front it can open against Israel while Israelis vote on Tuesday in a parliamentary election. What the Lebanese sources describe is not a group accepting the verdict of the last war. It is a group treating the verdict as a pause.