Blasts hit Beirut as Israel targets Hezbollah-run bank branches

Beirut/Cairo: Israel has begun striking sites linked to the financial operations of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, shortly after telling residents to leave those areas immediately.

Hundreds of Beirut residents fled their homes late on Sunday (Monday morning AEDT) after Israel’s warning and soon after, several blasts were heard and a large fire was seen in the city’s southern suburbs and sites near the Beirut airport.

In a post on X, Israel Defence Forces’ Arabic-language spokesman told civilians to move away from branches of the Al-Qard Al-Hasan Association.

Flames and smoke rise form Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut on Sunday.Credit: AP

“Residents of Lebanon, the IDF will begin attacking infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association – get away from it immediately,” the post said.

The US sanctioned the association, which works as a bank and credit union, in 2007 after the Treasury Department said it was being used by Iran to funnel money to Hezbollah and other militant groups. The bank-like institution has more than 30 branches across Lebanon including 15 in densely populated parts of central Beirut and its suburbs.

There was no immediate statement from the organisation, Hezbollah or the Lebanese government.

Reuters witnesses saw dense plumes of black smoke billowing in the air after at least 10 blasts. Witnesses, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a building located in the Chiyah neighbourhood was reduced to rubble and the few people in the area had fled ahead of the explosion, resulting in no casualties.

Panicked crowds clogged the streets and caused traffic jams in some parts of Beirut as they tried to get to areas thought to be safer, witnesses said.

Asked by journalists whether the branches could be considered military targets, a senior Israeli intelligence official said: “The purpose of this strike is to target the ability of Hezbollah economic function both during the war but also afterwards to rebuild and to rearm ...on the day after.”

‘Active enforcement’ plan to end war in Lebanon

Israel gave the United States a document last week with its conditions for a diplomatic solution to end the war in Lebanon, Axios reported on Monday, citing two US officials and two Israeli officials.

Israel has demanded the IDF be allowed to engage in “active enforcement” to make sure Hezbollah doesn’t rearm and rebuild its military infrastructure close to the border, Axios reported, citing an Israeli official.

Israel also demanded its air force have freedom of operation in Lebanese airspace, the report added.

A US official told Axios it was highly unlikely that Lebanon and the international community would agree to Israel’s conditions.

The White House could not be immediately reached outside regular business hours. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The embassies of Israel and Lebanon in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

White House special envoy Amos Hochstein was visiting Beirut on Monday to discuss a diplomatic solution to the conflict, the report added.

Escalated attacks

In the northern Gaza Strip, officials said rescuers were still recovering people from the rubble after an Israeli attack on Beit Lahiya that left 87 people dead or missing at the weekend, according to the Health Ministry – one of the highest death tolls for months from a single attack.

Israel said it was investigating reports of the incident.

A young Palestinian mourns his relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital in Deir el-Balah, on Sunday.Credit: AP

It marked an intensification of Israel’s offensives against Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza and Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, days after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar raised hopes of an opening for ceasefire negotiations to end more than a year of conflict.

Israel is also preparing to retaliate for an Iranian missile barrage earlier this month, though Washington has pressed it not to strike Iranian energy facilities or nuclear sites.

The retaliation has taken longer than many expected, perhaps because of co-ordination between the US and Israel. Washington has sent Israel sophisticated anti-ballistic missile defence weapons for if and when Iran hits back.

An apparently leaked Pentagon document over the weekend detailed some of Israel’s preparations for such an attack. The leak, the authenticity of which wasn’t verified, appeared on the Telegram account of a pro-Iranian group called Middle East Spectator.

Workers clean a street under a giant portrait of the late Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh, in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut.Credit: AP

The documents appear to have been prepared by the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, describing US interpretations of Israeli Air Force and Navy planning based on satellite imagery from October 15 to 16.

Asked about the leak during an interview with CNN, US House Speaker Mike Johnson, said an investigation was under way.

“...We are following it closely,” Johnson added.

The New York Times reported that officials acknowledged privately that the documents were authentic, but that they likely only represent a portion of information the US had on its close ally’s planning.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that while it considers what the US advises, Israel makes its own decisions.

Netanyahu said he was the subject of an assassination attempt by “Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah” on Saturday when a drone was directed at his holiday home. In a call with former US president Donald Trump, the prime minister reiterated that Israel would make decisions based on its own interests.

Israel’s government has spurned several attempts by the United States, its main ally and military backer, to broker ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon.

On a visit near the Lebanese border, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said forces were dismantling Hezbollah tunnels, weapons stores and infrastructure. “Our goal is to completely ‘clean’ the area so that Israel’s northern communities may return to their homes,” he added.

Lebanese security and civil defence sources said two aid workers were killed in an Israeli strike on a house being used as a clinic in southern Lebanon, while the country’s military said three of its soldiers were killed in a strike on an army vehicle.

Hezbollah made no immediate comment on the strikes, but said it had fired missiles at Israeli forces in Lebanon and at a base in northern Israel.

Cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah erupted a year ago when the group began launching rockets in support of Hamas.

At the start of October, Israel launched a ground assault inside Lebanon in an attempt to stabilise the border region for its citizens who had fled rocket attacks in northern Israel.

Over the last year, Lebanese officials estimate that more than 2400 people have been killed and more than 1.2 million people displaced. Fifty-nine people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights over the same period, say Israeli authorities.

Hamas-led militants killed 1200 people and took 250 hostages in the attack that sparked the war, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s military response in Gaza has left more than 42,500 people dead, Palestinian officials say.

As the fighting has continued, two of the three remaining hospitals in northern Gaza have been hit and patients, medical staff and displaced people injured, according to the United Nations. The UN has been urgently seeking access.

Israel says militants use civilian areas including schools and hospitals for cover, a charge Hamas denies.

Evacuation orders have fuelled fears among many Palestinians that the operation is intended to clear them from northern Gaza to enable Israeli control of the area after the war.

Israel has denied this, saying it is trying to protect civilians and separate them from Hamas fighters.

Reuters, Bloomberg

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