Israel's efforts to wipe out the capabilities of Hezbollah are now focusing on the caves and tunnels of southern Lebanon's savage terrain and just this week, Israel confidently claimed it had destroyed half of the Islamic militant group's arsenal.

However, while Hezbollah continues to launch rockets capable of hitting cities deep inside Israel, some experts believe the Israeli claim is just wishful thinking.

With a charismatic and popular leader, superb military training, millions in funding and support from Iran and Syria, Hezbollah is a force that won't go quietly, if at all.

Indeed, the religious conviction of its guerrillas, their seasoned fighting experience and the support they have among Lebanon's 1.2 million Shiites are additional assets that could help ensure its long-term survival.

Rachad Antonius, a Middle East specialist at the University of Quebec, believes Israel's goal of wiping out Hezbollah is impossible to achieve.

"Hezbollah represents a very broad range of people and it's an important sector of the society," Antonius told CTV News.

"The only way to silence them would be to kill all the Lebanese in the south. Israel cannot do that."

Hezbollah has repeatedly met Israeli ground troops with heavy fire and recently succeeded in wiping out an Israeli tank and an armoured bulldozer with anti-tank missiles.

The militant group is believed to have rockets, possibly manufactured in Iran, with ranges of up to 45 miles and its deadly arsenal includes land mines, anti-aircraft guns, assault rifles and night vision equipment.

With a poster of slain former Hezbollah leader Abbas Mussawi, a car passes by smoke from an Israeli warplane missile attack billowing from an open field in the outskirts of the southern village of Bourghlieh, Lebanon on Tuesday. (AP / Lefteris Pitarakis)

Ground troops

If Israel wants to succeed in pushing the group's rocket launchers back so they can no longer reach Israel, sending in ground troops is seen as a necessity.

But the ground offensive could be costly in terms of casualties and Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has made no secret of his wish to see his guerrillas take on Israeli troops eyeball-to-eyeball.

Nasrallah has also ridiculed Israel's claim to have wiped out '50 per cent' of Hezbollah's arsenal.

"The arsenal that you fear is still there ... and our ability to fire many, many more remains intact," he said.

And although Israel may have succeeded in disrupting Hezbollah's supply lines by bombing the main highway to Syria and imposing a naval blockade on Lebanon, Hezbollah has long proved adept at finding ways to receive and hide its weapons and funds.

Hezbollah's fighters are said to be mostly drawn from the local regions of southern Lebanon and can easily blend into the local population, relying on residents for food and shelter.

"Israel's biggest weakness is that it's ignorant of the magnitude of Hezbollah's resources," said Helmi Moussa in the Beirut newspaper As-Safir.

'Party of God'

Described by the United States as a terrorist organization, Hezbollah, or 'Party of God,' is a powerful political and military movement which represents Lebanon's Shiite Muslims.

It was established with financial backing from Iran in the early 1980s and was the only Lebanese political party to openly keep its arms at the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

According to U.S. intelligence reports, Iran's Islamist government gives Hezbollah around $100 million a year and provides the movement with sophisticated weapons systems to be used by its several thousand well-trained soldiers.

Iran also sends advisers, and according to U.S. intelligence, issues its marching orders.

Meanwhile, Syria allows Hezbollah to train fighters in remote camps in Syria and territory under its control in Lebanon.

According to the FBI, Hezbollah has not played a role in any terrorist attacks within the United States.

The FBI says that its members in the U.S. are raising funds for activities overseas and nothing more than that.

Ending the Israeli occupation

Hezbollah's military arm, the Islamic Resistance, was a main force in driving Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after a 22-year occupation.

During the occupation, Hezbollah adopted the tactic of taking Western hostages, but their most effective weapons were the remote-controlled roadside bombs that were detonated when Israeli patrols passed by.

In 1983, militants who went on to join Hezbollah ranks carried out a suicide bombing attack that killed 241 U.S. marines in Beirut.

Israel, faced with mounting casualties after having already lost 900 soldiers in the conflict, withdrew in 2000, a decision that Hezbollah and many in Lebanon saw as a major Arab victory.

The group's success won it the support of many Lebanese, widespread admiration for Hezbollah chief Nasrallah, and a subsequent presence in the Lebanese parliament.

Terrorism expert Eric Margolis described Nasrallah as a "remarkable character."

Appearing on CTV News, Margolis said while Nasrallah was seen as "the great Satan" to the West and Israel, he was "the great hero" of the Arab world.

"He was the only Arab to defeat the Israelis militarily and he fought them out of southern Lebanon after years of bloody combat," he said. 

"He is the most popular Lebanese politician and with this latest challenge to Israel, he is now quickly becoming the most looked at and probably the most popular Arab politician."

Hezbollah even has its own television station, Al Manar, which reaches a worldwide audience by satellite. The movement also runs a network of schools and hospitals throughout Lebanon.

Israeli ground troops clashed with Hezbollah guerillas as they crossed the border in search of tunnels and weapons.

Refusal to disarm

Despite a 2004 UN resolution ordering Hezbollah to disarm, the group is still believed to have anywhere between 5,000 to 20,000 militiamen under arms in Lebanon.

Last year, Hezbollah chief Nasrallah boasted his movement had more than 12,000 rockets, including Katyushas, which could reach northern Israel.

The movement has vowed to keep fighting as long as Israel remains in the Shebaa Farms area, a tiny disputed border enclave on the border between Lebanon, Israel and Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Lebanon says Shebaa Farms is Lebanese land occupied by Israel, but Israel, backed by the United Nations, insists the farms are on the Syrian side of the border and therefore form part of the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Syria agreed to withdraw its 14,000 troops from the country after the UN Security Council 2004 resolution, which demanded all foreign forces leave Lebanon.

The withdrawal of Syrian troops and the widespread anti-Syrian protests in the wake of the 2005 assassination of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri changed the balance of power.

The assassination, which was blamed on Syria, saw Hezbollah become the most powerful military force in Lebanon.

And while Hezbollah capitalized on its political gains, it continued to describe itself as a force of resistance against Israel, not only for Lebanon, but for the entire region.

The movement has called for the destruction of Israel, describing its occupation of Palestine as 'occupied Muslim land' and arguing the state has no right to exist.

Hezbollah has also frequently protested the continued detention of prisoners from Lebanon in Israeli jails.

It shows support not only for the Palestinians, but also for the Islamist militant group Hamas, while presenting itself as a champion of the anti-Israeli struggle.

Hezbollah's critics accuse it of recklessness and of pursuing a Syrian and Iranian, rather than a Lebanese, agenda.

Meanwhile, Damascus and Tehran, neither of whom want to be drawn directly into this fierce conflict, are anxiously attempting to deflect pressure from the Bush administration in Washington.