Hezbollah’s millions go up in smoke as Beirut cash vault hit

A Hezbollah bunker containing half a billion dollars lies under a hospital in Beirut, Israel says as the IDF targets a separate vault filled with tens of millions of dollars in gold and cash.

A Hezbollah bunker containing half a billion dollars lies under a hospital in Beirut, Israel says as the Israel military targets a separate vault filled with tens of millions of dollars in gold and cash.

The Israeli Defence Force is pummelling Hezbollah’s financial arm, hitting more than two dozen targets including a separate money vault holding tens of millions of dollars, and the US-sanctioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan association, accused of financing the Iran-backed terror group.

The strikes since Sunday night mark an expansion of Israel’s campaign against the Iran-backed group after a year of cross-border exchanges that escalated in late September into a full-blown war.

Israeli forces are now seeking to degrade the Shiite Muslim movement’s ability to fund its operations with military spokesman Daniel Hagari saying the money in the underground vault was being used to finance Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel.

“The Israeli Air Force carried out a series of precise strikes on these Hezbollah financial strongholds,” Rear Admiral Hagari said in a televised briefing.

“One of our main targets last night was an underground vault with tens of millions of dollars in cash and gold. The money was being used to finance Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel.”

“Tonight, I am going to declassify intelligence on a site that we did not strike—where Hezbollah has millions of dollars in gold and cash—in Hassan Nasrallah’s bunker. Where is the bunker located? Directly under Al-Sahel Hospital in the heart of Beirut.”

Listen to IDF Spox.… pic.twitter.com/SjMZQpKqoJ

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 21, 2024

Rear Admiral Hagari said the bunker, also allegedly filled with cash and gold under the Sahel hospital in Beirut, had not been targeted yet by the Israeli military.

“According to the estimates we have, there is at least half a billion dollars in dollar bills and gold stored in this bunker,” Rear Adm. Hagari said.

“This money could and still can be used to rebuild the state of Lebanon.”

Hospital director Fadi Alameh denied the allegation and called on the Lebanese army to visit the site, telling Reuters the hospital was being evacuated.

Earlier, Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said more than two dozen targets belonging to Al-Qard al-Hassan were hit.

“We struck close to 30 targets across Lebanon,” Lt. Gen. Halevi said in a statement, after strikes began the association that Israel accuses of financing “Hezbollah’s terrorist operations”.

The announcements came as the army said it continued to hammer an array of Hezbollah positions across Lebanon, including strikes against about 300 targets in the previous 24 hours.

Al-Qard al-Hassan is a lifeline for mainly Muslim Shiite communities battling a years-long financial crisis that has locked Lebanese out of their bank deposits.

A branch of the Al-Qard Al-Hassan finance group is in ruins after an Israeli air strike. Picture: AFP.

The financial firm, officially registered as a charity, has been offering customers credit in exchange for gold deposits on an interest-free basis since the 1980s.

Its beneficiaries are mainly Shiite Muslims, but in a country where a five-year economic crisis has forced many into desperation, Christians and Sunni Muslims have also turned to its services.

The United States has long sanctioned the association, accusing Hezbollah of using it as a cover to mask its financial activities and gain access to the international financial system.

On Sunday evening, Israel struck Al-Qard al-Hassan branches in Beirut, the eastern Bekaa Valley and south Lebanon, Lebanese official media said.

Al-Qard al-Hassan says it has more than 30 branches nationwide, mainly in Hezbollah bastions including Beirut’s southern suburbs, but also in central Beirut and in other major cities such as Sidon and Tyre.

Israel in late September widened the focus of its military operations to Lebanon after nearly a year of war against Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip.