At least three branches of Al Qard Al Hassan in Beirut, a financial institution linked to Hezbollah, were hit on Sunday night by Israeli airstrikes, CNN reports, citing the Lebanese National News Agency. The attacks targeted branches in the areas of Hay Al-Sellom, Burj Al-Barajneh and Ghobeiry, in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Before that, Israel had already announced that it would bomb several infrastructures related to the financial operations of the Shiite group Hezbollah in Lebanon, warning residents of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, and other parts of the country to stay away from the surrounding area. The objective of the attack “is to hit Hezbollah’s ability to function economically, both during the war and after,” a senior Israeli intelligence official told the media.
“Residents of Lebanon, our troops will soon attack the infrastructure belonging to Al Qard Al Hassan, move away immediately”, the Israeli army spokesman wrote on his account on the social network X (formerly Twitter). The alerts affect residents of the capital and other areas of the country where there are “locations used by Hezbollah to finance its terrorist activity”.
Consequently, this Sunday, hundreds of residents left their homes, causing crowds in the streets and traffic jams in some areas of Beirut as people moved to neighborhoods where they hope to be safer.
According to Reuters, Al Qard Al Hassan – a Hezbollah-run banking entity that grants loans and provides banking services – has more than 30 branches in Lebanon, including 15 in densely populated areas of central and suburban Beirut.
“Hezbollah has different forms of financing, but the most important are the companies it created, such as Al Qard al Hassan,” declared a senior Israeli intelligence official. “We know that with this type of bank, disconnected from the international SWIFT system, it pays salaries within its organization and is used by many Lebanese civilians”, he adds.
According to this senior official from the Israeli secret services, Iran transfers money to Hezbollah every month and diplomats sympathetic to that militia enter the country with money in their bags, he guarantees, highlighting that there is evidence.
This Saturday, a Hezbollah drone attack against the city of Caesarea, which hit a private residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, led Israel to intensify threats against Iran.
“The Iranian agents who tried to assassinate me and my wife made a bitter mistake today,” reacted Netanyahu. During the day on Sunday, the Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, announced that Israel is destroying Hezbollah positions “in every village along the border” between the twoinses, places that that Lebanese formation “wanted to use as bases to launch attacks against Israel”.
It is recalled that these attacks occur days after the announcement of the death of Yahya Sinwar, leader and main mastermind of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, as part of an Israeli “routine operation”.
Source: expresso.pt
