Hezbollah fires barrage of rockets; Israel vows to hit more ‘vaults of cash and gold’

Beirut: Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel on Tuesday, setting off air-raid sirens in the country’s most populated areas but causing no apparent damage or injuries.

The Israeli military said five projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel and said most were intercepted by Israel’s missile defence system. One landed in an open area.

The rocket fire came as Israel stepped up its strikes in Lebanon, targeting a Hezbollah-run financial institution, and as the US pushed to resume ceasefire talks in Gaza following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Israel says it will carry out more strikes against a Hezbollah-run financial institution in Lebanon which it says uses customers’ deposits to finance attacks against the Jewish state.

At least 15 branches of Al-Qard Al-Hasan were hit on Monday (AEDT) in the southern suburbs of Beirut, across the south of the country and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. One strike flattened a nine-storey building in Beirut with a branch inside it.

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

The bank-like institution, which has more than 30 branches across Lebanon, tried to reassure customers, saying it had evacuated all branches and relocated gold and other deposits to safe areas.

Many customers are civilians unaffiliated with Hezbollah. Al-Qard Al-Hasan, which is sanctioned by the United States and Saudi Arabia, has long served as an alternative to Lebanon’s banks, which have imposed restrictions on customers since a severe financial crisis that began in 2019.

The Arabic language spokesman for the Israeli military, Avichay Adraee, said that Hezbollah stored hundreds of millions of dollars in the institution’s branches and that the money was used to buy arms and pay fighters. The strikes were aimed at preventing the group from rearming, he said.

The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings before the strikes, and there were no reports of casualties.

Associated Press journalists witnessed strikes late on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) in the coastal region of Ouzai, near Beirut’s airport. The Health Ministry said an airstrike near Beirut’s largest public hospital had killed four, including a child, and wounded 24. It was the first strike on the Lebanese capital in 10 days.

Documents of Hezbollah-run Al-Qard Al-Hassan are scattered at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night in Beirut’s southern suburbs.Credit: AP

Israeli ground forces invaded Lebanon earlier this month. The military says it aims to push Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon so that tens of thousands of Israelis can return to their homes nearby after more than a year of cross-border rocket and drone attacks. Israeli airstrikes have pounded large areas of Lebanon for weeks, forcing more than a million people to flee their homes.

Hezbollah has been launching rockets into Israel nearly every day since Hamas’ deadly raid into Israel last year that sparked the war in Gaza.

The US is hoping to revive diplomatic efforts to resolve both conflicts after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week, but so far all sides appear to be digging in.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israel planned more strikes on Al-Qard al-Hasan.

Hagari claimed Iran funded Hezbollah by sending cash and gold to the Iranian embassy in Beirut.

Hagari also said that Israeli intelligence had discovered a bunker belonging to former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that is now being used as a vault under a hospital in southern Beirut. He said it held millions of dollars of gold and cash.

A member of Lebanon’s parliament who is the director of the hospital, Fadi Alameh, denied the claim, and said the hospital had underground operation rooms. Alameh said the hospital was being evacuated in anticipation of strikes.

Hagari said Israeli strikes in Beirut in early October and in Syria on Monday had also killed people responsible for transferring money between Iran and Hezbollah. Syrian state media said an Israeli airstrike hit a car in the capital of Damascus, killing two people and wounding three.

Israeli airstrikes killed 17 people in Lebanon on Monday, including four first responders, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired 170 projectiles into Israel on Monday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Tuesday for meetings with Israeli leaders, the first stop of a wider Middle East tour to launch another push for an elusive ceasefire.

The top US diplomat’s latest trip is his 11th to the region since Palestinian Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, triggering the Gaza war.

US envoy Amos Hochstein, who has spent much of the past year trying to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, was back in Lebanon on Monday for talks with senior officials.

He said US Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, was “no longer enough” to ensure peace and a new mechanism was needed to enforce it.

The resolution called for Hezbollah to withdraw from the border with Israel and for UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army to control southern Lebanon, without any Hezbollah or Israeli presence.

Israel says the resolution was never implemented and that Hezbollah built up extensive military infrastructure to the border. Lebanon has long accused Israel of violating its airspace and failing to abide by other provisions of the resolution.

AP, Reuters

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