Shiite villages and farms. With Amal unable to control this region, the Shiites were trapped in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
On June 6, 1982, the Israeli army invaded southern Lebanon, overrunning PLO camps and driving north to Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. At first, many Lebanese-including the Shiites-welcomed the chance to drive out the Palestinians, who were in control of much of southern Lebanon. Gradually, however, the Lebanese Shiites turned against the Israelis. In mosques and village squares throughout southern Lebanon, Shiite clerics began calling for a jihad (holy war) against the imperial Israeli forces. Within a few months of the Israeli invasion, the Iranian government sent Islamic clerics into Lebanon to organize Hizballah-the Party of God.
The Ayatollah Khomeini appointed the Hizballah leaders and supported the group with money and arms. A Lebanese Shiite cleric, Sheikh Mohammed Hassan Fadlallah, became a leader of the Hizballah organization. Under his guidance, Hizballah groups sprang up in town throughou
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