Israel’s army targets Hezbollah’s financial structure

“In the coming days, we will reveal how Iran finances Hezbollah’s terrorist activities using civilian institutions, associations and non-governmental organizations,” Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in the evening. He called on all people near Hezbollah financial institution locations in Beirut and other parts of the country to move away immediately.

Shortly afterwards the Luftwaffe struck. Lebanon’s NNA reported at least 11 consecutive attacks in Beirut’s suburbs. A building in the immediate vicinity of the only international airport in the country was also hit. Images on social media showed dark clouds of smoke rising into the sky off the runways south of Beirut.

The main goal of the attacks on Al-Kard Al-Hassan is to “shake trust between Hezbollah and a large part of the Shiite community, which uses this association as a banking system,” the Wall Street Journal quoted an Israeli intelligence official as saying. According to a 2021 U.S. Treasury Department report, the association operates like a Hezbollah bank under the guise of a non-governmental organization (NGO), operating ATMs and issuing loans without authorization or regulatory oversight.

Israel’s army destroys neighborhoods and villages in Lebanon

The purpose of the attack was to hit Hezbollah so that it would no longer be able to rebuild and re-arm itself after the war, a senior Israeli military official told the newspaper before the start of the nightly attacks, as he was in the branches the financial institution probably didn’t stop anyone. According to the army, Israel’s offensive in Lebanon has so far focused on Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, although residential buildings have also been destroyed and municipal and other civilian infrastructure hit.

Hezbollah has tens of thousands of followers in Lebanon, with whom it mainly controls the south on the border with Israel, Shiite-inhabited districts of Beirut and the Bekaa Valley in the north of the country. At the same time, the militia is considered a strong political power in Lebanon, which is on the verge of collapse. The country is suffering from a severe economic crisis. The damage caused by the ongoing Israeli attacks is massive. According to Lebanese security circles, Israel’s army almost completely destroyed several places in the south of the country. According to eyewitnesses, entire residential areas in Beirut’s suburbs are in ruins.

Only parts of buildings remain

Israel’s attacks are aimed at the Hezbollah militia, which has been firing rockets at its neighbor Israel every day for over a year. But it is primarily the civilian population who suffers from the war. In the neighborhoods on the southern outskirts of Beirut, which are considered strongholds of the Hezbollah militia, only remnants of buildings remain, a reporter from the Dpa news agency reported. The Lebanese army, which is actually neutral in the conflict, is also reporting losses.

The Israeli army, for its part, reported that five soldiers were killed in a battle in southern Lebanon. According to Israeli sources, Hezbollah fired around 200 rockets at the Jewish state during the day. Warning sirens wailed again at night in northern Israel, as the military announced on Telegram. After sirens also blared in the Jordan Valley, a drone that had penetrated into Israel from the east was intercepted, it was said early in the morning. Previously, a drone fired from Iraq was shot down over Syria. After a drone attack in the coastal town of Caesarea attributed to Hezbollah, which, according to Israel’s government, was aimed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he announced further strikes against Israel’s enemies.

US mediator for talks in Lebanon

US mediator Hochstein is holding talks in Beirut today with the acting Prime Minister of Lebanon, Najib Mikati, and the parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri, as government circles confirmed to the dpa. Hezbollah, which is politically and militarily supported by Iran, has been represented in parliament since the first election after the end of the civil war in 1992. It is committed to charity, but also has a military wing that, according to estimates, includes tens of thousands of fighters. This is classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union. In Germany, there has been a ban on the entire Hezbollah since 2020.

Hochstein has been trying to de-escalate between the Hezbollah militia and Israel for months. According to Vice President Kamala Harris, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also travel to the Middle East in the coming days for talks with the parties to the conflict. “We need an end to the war,” Harris said in a TV interview. According to media reports, Blinken is expected in Israel on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Blinken is also traveling to the Middle East again

“The number of innocent Palestinians killed in Gaza is truly outrageous and we must be honest about it,” Harris added. At the same time, she will always stand up for Israel’s right to self-defense.

The Gaza war was triggered by the terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas and other extremist Islamists on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 250 others were kidnapped as hostages in the Gaza Strip. As a result of the war, the armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah also escalated.