It does everything from beekeeping to reforestation to offering advice on optimum storage of avocados — but is also designated as a terrorist organization by the US government.

Jihad al-Binaa has provided Lebanese communities with wide-ranging services in agriculture, training and construction since it was founded in 1988 as the development association of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed political and military group.

“As well as military work, Hezbollah has since the beginning been concerned with political, cultural and healthcare issues,” Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah told a mostly male, middle-aged audience at an event July 26 for Jihad al-Binaa’s 31st anniversary. He spoke via video link shown at a mosque in Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The anniversary — with the slogan “We carry on” — was widely advertised on pro-Hezbollah messaging channels and social media networks. It comes at a time when the “Party of God” — the group's literal translation in Arabic — faces greater-than-ever pressure from US sanctions, and as it wants to remind support bases of its legacy, analysts say.