Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Sunday night that the IDF carried out a series of raids targeting buildings belonging to the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association after asking residents to stay away. IDF spokesman in Arabic Avichay Adraee issued a series of warnings accompanied by maps of buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the eastern Beqaa, and south Lebanon, warning that these are facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah, and calling for people to keep their distance.
The first IDF raids targeted areas in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and the headquarters of Al-Qard al-Hasan in Baalbek, Hermel, and Rayak in the Beqaa Valley.
The Qard al-Hasan is similar in principle to the Jewish Gmach – offering interest-free loans to people in the community who need them. But according to Israeli sources, the bank was used to pay the salaries of Hezbollah terrorists. It also functions as a conduit for money laundering for Hezbollah’s drug trade.
The bank has been under sanctions imposed in 2007 by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control. In 2021, the U.S. Treasury Department said the bank “illicitly moves funds through shell accounts and facilitators, exposing Lebanese financial institutions to possible sanctions.”
Adraee told the people of Lebanon that Hezbollah is financed by the Iranian state budget, which is used for arming, building ammunition storage facilities, erecting launchers, financing rent for Hezbollah members, and carrying out various terrorist activities. According to Adraee, most of the funds transferred from Iran, as well as funds that Hezbollah brought in themselves, are managed by Al-Qard al-Hasan which serves as a shelter for Hezbollah’s economic assets.
While the number of raids on the southern suburbs reached 11 according to the official National News Agency, the Al-Arabiya TV correspondent reported that one of them targeted the vicinity of Beirut Airport. Al-Qard Al-Hassan has 31 branches across Lebanon, many in Beirut’s Hezbollah stronghold southern suburbs, which have been hit repeatedly by the IDF bombing campaign and are largely evacuated. Another branch is located in downtown Beirut, outside the Lebanese parliament.
The Hezbollah bank issued a statement calling the decision to target it a sign of Israel’s “bankruptcy” and assured customers it had taken “measures” to ensure their funds were safe, and threatened “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” The Saudi newspaper Asharq Al Awsat reported that a stream of people left the areas surrounding its branches in Beirut.
Israel launched its attack one day following Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s remarks regarding the civilian casualties in Lebanon, which he described as “far too high,” urging Israel to reduce certain military strikes, particularly in and around Beirut (Austin Wants Israel to Curb Its Response to the Attempt on Netanyahu’s Life).
