By Christopher Albon.

A convoy of Red Cross trucks entered Israel today in preparation for the transfer of 200 Lebanese and Palestine corpses as part of the prisoner exchange agreement. The coffins will be transported into Lebanon and given to the Islamic Health Authority.

So what is the Islamic Health Authority? Hezbollah's very own Ministry of Health, that's what. Over the years, domestic and Iranian funding has allowed Hezbollah to establish a large and effective health care system, run by the Islamic Health Authority. The Authority maintains (by one count) 50 active hospitals, primarily in Beirut and the Shiite dominated south, including hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies:

The al-Janoub Hospital in the southern city of Nabatiyah sits across from a Shiite mosque, the Zahar Boutique and Yassine Chicken, whose smells waft into the spotless waiting room. A photograph of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Shiite revolution in Iran, hangs on the wall above the receptionist, a woman cloaked in black.

The 30-bed hospital opened nearly a decade ago, at a time when southern Lebanon was the battleground in a war pitting Hezbollah and another Muslim militia against thousands of Israeli troops and the South Lebanon Army, a mostly Christian militia aligned with Israel. Today 50,000 patients pass through its wide halls each year, regardless of their political affiliation. The hospital receives $100,000 a month from Hezbollah, which is expanding its 50-hospital network into northern Lebanon.

Ahmad Saad, the hospital's director and a member of Hezbollah's national health committee said the party was only filling a public need left by the Lebanese government's inability to provide sufficient health care for the region.

Hezbollah’s health care system helped solidify the group’s political legitimacy in Lebanon by providing quasi-governmental health services. However, this health network lacks much of the neutrality typically afforded to health facilities by states. Notably, in the Israel-Lebanon War of 2006 IDF commandos staged a large scale raid on Hezbollah’s Dar al-Hikma hospital in Southern Lebanon to capture Hezbollah officials being treated there.