Tonight Israeli air strikes targeted the branches of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a bank-association accused of financing the terrorist group Hezbollah. At least 11 attacks were reported in Beirut’s southern suburbs, while other attacks occurred in southern Lebanon and the northeastern Beqaa Valley region, all Hezbollah strongholds, as panicked civilians sought cover. In the evening, Israel declared that it intended to launch a campaign against Hezbollah’s financing networks, ordering civilians to leave any Al-Qard Al-Hassan structure. «We will hit many sites in the next few hours and other sites during the night. In the coming days, we will reveal how Iran finances Hezbollah’s terrorist activity using civilian institutions and associations as cover,” IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Sunday evening shortly before the attacks began. Hundreds of Beirut residents fled their homes as explosions rang out across the Lebanese capital, including near Beirut International Airport, adjacent to the southern Beirut suburb known as Dahiyeh, where much of Hezbollah is based.
Reuters witnesses saw thick columns of black smoke rising into the air after at least 10 explosions. Eyewitnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a building located in the Chiyah neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs was reduced to rubble and the few people in the area had fled before the explosion, without causing any casualties. Most of the activities of the terrorist organization Hezbollah are financed from the Iranian state budget while the rest of the funds come from international drug trafficking. Hezbollah uses these funds to finance its terrorist activities, including armaments, the purchase of facilities for the purpose of storing weapons, the creation of launch sites and the payment of salaries of members of the organization, as well as to carry out various terrorist activities. Al-Qard al-Hassan, authorized by the US Treasury Department, has more than 30 branches across Lebanon, including 15 in densely populated areas of central Beirut and its suburbs. Most of Hezbollah’s cash and gold reserves were destroyed in Israel’s recent attack that eliminated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and an estimated $1.5 billion and about 1 ton of gold were incinerated. In practice Hezbollah had more money than the Lebanese state which is broke.
Around 200 rockets were fired at Israel on Sunday, causing material damage but causing no casualties, the Israel Defense Forces said. On Sunday and Monday morning, Israel was also the target of drones launched from Iraq. The IDF reported shooting down a drone coming “from the east” of Syria. A second drone, claimed by Iran-backed militias in Iraq, was destroyed after it flew over Israel, triggering alarms in some settlements in the northern Jordan Valley of the West Bank. Finally, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar traveled to Cairo on Sunday to discuss the possibility of restarting negotiations on the hostage issue, following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week in Gaza, as reported by an Israeli official al Times of Israel. The death of the Hamas leader has rekindled hopes of a new window of opportunity to resume long-stalled negotiations for the release of the 101 hostages held by Hamas, and to end the fighting between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group.
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