Israel strikes Hezbollah-linked banks in Lebanon

Israeli attacks on a Lebanese microfinance institution: Al-Qard Al-Hassan’s bank

On Sunday, a senior Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to detail attack plans before they were carried out, told reporters that Israel planned to destroy several of the institution’s branches in Lebanon in order to raise funds for Hezbollah.

Late Sunday, a military spokesman posted messages online in Arabic telling citizens in Lebanon to move away from specific buildings that house branches of the bank.

While the UN representatives said there was panic in parts of Lebanon, Israel’s foreign minister said 15 buildings were bombed and its military would continue its attack on Hezbollah.

Ihab Hamadeh, a member of the Lebanese parliament affiliated with Hezbollah’s political wing, insisted that the group did not profit from Al-Qard Al-Hassan. He said the financial institution offers services to all Lebanese consumers and has granted some 5,000 scholarships to university students overseas. He wrote on Telegram that the depositors in Al-Qard Al-Hassan would not lose a single penny.

The Carnegie Middle East Center director stated on his social media that Al-Qard Al-Hassan was a microfinance institution like the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. She said the institution gives small loans to low income individuals against specific assets in Lebanon, a country where the mainstream internationally linked banking system has repeatedly collapsed.

There was a suggestion on social media that the hospital in the town had been evacuated due to the strike on the branch. But in a statement Lebanon’s health ministry denied that, and said the hospital was operating normally. The patients were moved out of the rooms next to the Al-Hassan branch after the Israeli threats.

Hezbollah is partially financed and significantly supported by the government of Iran, and Katz said Israeli forces would “keep striking the Iranian proxy until it collapses.”

Precise details of fatalities and injuries tied to the strikes overnight into Monday have not yet been confirmed. The National News Agency said the strikes caused damage to the other floors of the same building as well as nearby stores. And in the city of Tyre, the agency reported that “severe damage to surrounding homes” and to a nearby radio station had resulted from the strike on one branch.

The death toll from the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has gone up to 2,476, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The Iranian state news agency said that a drone was sent from Hezbollah to the home of Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, described it in a social media post as an “attempt to kill the prime minister of Israel,” and “an attack on all of us — on the people of Israel.”

The United States tried to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah but those attempts fell apart last month after Israeli strikes killed Hezbollah’s top leader and many of his commanders.

Israel said Safieddine was killed by an airstrike in early October in a southern suburb of Beirut. Around 25 other Hezbollah leaders were killed during the strike, Israel said.

The building’s collapse sent smoke and debris into the air a couple hundred meters from where a spokeswoman for the militant group had just talked to journalists about the Israeli prime minister’s house attack.

Blinken stressed the need for Israel to do more to help increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and said Israel should “capitalize” on Sinwar’s death as an opportunity to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of hostages there. Netanyahu’s office called his meeting with Blinken, which lasted more than two hours, “friendly and productive.”

Blinken landed hours after Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel, setting off air raid sirens in populated areas and at its international airport, but causing no apparent damage or injuries.

Israel, Hamas, and the End of the War: The Associated Press Reports on the Rafik Hariri University Hospital

The Rafik Hariri University Hospital was visited by Associated Press reporters. The hospital was full of patients when they saw the broken windows.

Staff at another Beirut hospital feared it would be targeted after Israel alleged that Hezbollah had stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in its basement, without providing evidence.

Journalists were invited by the director to visit the hospital on Tuesday, in response to the allegations. AP reporters saw no sign of militants or anything out of the ordinary.

Miller said Blinken also stressed the importance of ending the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated earlier this month when Israel launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

The State Department said ahead of Blinken’s visit that he would focus on ending the war in Gaza, securing the release of hostages held by Hamas and alleviating the suffering of Palestinian civilians.

The US, along with others, has been trying to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas in which the Islamic group would release hostages in return for an end to the war and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

But both Israel and Hamas accused each other of making new and unacceptable demands over the summer, and the talks ground to a halt in August. Hamas says its demands haven’t changed following the killing of Sinwar.

Israel is waging another major operation in the already devastated northern region of Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed over the last two weeks, according to local health authorities.

Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and took another 250 hostage. Around 100 of the captives are still held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.