OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:35 PM – Monday, October 21, 2024
Israeli intelligence findings regarding the financial center of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, including a bunker beneath a south Beirut hospital that holds hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold, was disclosed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday.
Israel stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah on Sunday night, carrying out a number of attacks to weaken the terror group’s financial support from Iran.
“The Israeli Air Force carried out a series of precise strikes on these Hezbollah financial strongholds,” said IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in a 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,” he added.
Hagari went on to mention another bunker beneath a hospital in the capital, Beirut, that was reportedly also loaded with cash and gold. However, he said that the IDF had not yet targeted the vault.
“According to the estimates we have, there is at least half a billion dollars in dollar bills and gold stored in this bunker,” Hagari stated. “This money could and still can be used to rebuild the state of Lebanon.”
Hagari even went as far to provide a map during the briefing that indicated the bunker’s exact location beneath Al-Sahel Hospital in the Dahiyeh area of southern Beirut, which is home to a substantial portion of Hezbollah’s headquarters.
He cautioned that the Israeli Air Force is keeping an eye on the facility, and he urged Lebanese authorities and international organizations to stop Hezbollah from utilizing “the money for terror and to attack Israel.”
He stated that the IDF will not attack the hospital, claiming that Israel is at war with Hezbollah and not the Lebanese people.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi announced earlier on Monday that over two dozen targets of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a financial company associated with Hezbollah, had been targeted as well.
“We struck close to 30 targets across Lebanon,” Halevi said in a statement.
The comments were made as the IDF reported that it has continued to strike approximately 300 Hezbollah sites in Lebanon.
Since the 1980s, Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a financial company that is formally registered as a charity, has been providing interest-free credit to clients in exchange for gold deposits. Israel accuses Hezbollah of using AQAH to profit from civilians in Lebanon.
The group has long been sanctioned by the United States, which claims Hezbollah uses it as a front to conceal its financial operations and obtain access to the global financial system.
“In recent years, the state of Lebanon has experienced a deep financial crisis, which was exploited by Hezbollah,” the IDF spokesperson stated on Monday, explaining that the terrorist group’s two main sources of income are the ‘Lebanese people and the Iranian regime,’” the Times of Israel reported.
The head of Hezbollah’s financial branch, which transfers money from Iran to its proxy, was the target of an Israeli airstrike in Syria on Monday, Hagari also revealed.
According to IDF estimates, the ongoing fighting has claimed the lives of about 2,000 Hezbollah operatives. Hundreds of people have also reportedly been slain in Lebanon, along with about 100 members of other terrorist organizations.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
