Israeli Strikes Target Hezbollah’s Financial Arm

Flames and smoke rise form an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 20, 2024. Hussein Malla/AP Photo

The Israeli military stated on Oct. 21 that it had launched a series of targeted and intelligence-based strikes on sites linked to Hezbollah’s financial operations in Lebanon’s capital city Beirut on Oct. 20.

Dozens of Hezbollah-linked facilities and sites in the areas of Beirut, Lebanon, and deep within Lebanese territory were hit overnight on Oct. 20, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Prior to the strikes, the IDF issued evacuation orders for Beirut and urged people living “near [the] sites used to fund Hezbollah’s terror activities” to move away immediately.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued a statement urging people to move at least 500 meters away from branches of the U.S.- and Saudi-sanctioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association in Beirut.

The IDF stated that Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association helped the Iranian-backed group in storing “billions of dollars” of funds for its terrorism activities.

The Israeli military said that the Oct. 20 strikes were part of its ongoing efforts “to degrade Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure, its military capabilities and ability to rebuild.”

Explosions were reported in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Oct. 20, although it was unclear whether any casualties resulted from the blasts.

The financing organization, with an Arabic name meaning “the benevolent loan,” provides financial services to Hezbollah but also ordinary Lebanese citizens.

Adraee said Hezbollah had used the organization to pay the salaries of its operatives, purchase armament and weapon storage facilities, establish launch sites, and carry out its terrorist activities.

The IDF also issued evacuation orders for Haret Hreik, Al-Ghobeiry, Al-Shiyah, and Shoufat Al-Omrousiya in Beirut’s southern suburbs, warning that these areas house Hezbollah’s facilities that “the IDF will act against in the near future.”

The Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association said in a statement that it has taken “all the necessary procedures” to protect its customers’ funds and accused Israel of trying to “threaten and target Qard Al Hassan the nonprofit organization.”

According to the Israeli military, Hezbollah fired roughly 200 projectiles from Lebanon toward Israel on Oct. 19, triggering sirens in various areas of northern Israel. Some of the projectiles were intercepted, while others fell in open areas.

3 Lebanese Soldiers Killed

The IDF issued an apology on Oct. 21 for what it described as “unwanted circumstances” after three soldiers of the Lebanese army were killed in an Israeli airstrike. The IDF emphasized that it was not operating against the Lebanese army.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, the international spokesperson for the IDF, said the incident happened when a Lebanese army truck arrived in the area of Hanine, where Hezbollah rebels had previously attacked IDF soldiers.

“The soldiers in the area who identified the truck conducted a strike toward it,” Shoshani stated on social media platform X.

“It was later concluded that the truck was owned by the Lebanese Army, and that three operatives were killed. The arrival of a truck owned by the Lebanese army was unknown to the IDF.”

Lebanon’s army has largely kept to the sidelines in the war. The military is a respected institution in Lebanon but isn’t powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah or defend the country from an Israeli invasion.

In a show of support with Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on a near-daily basis in violation of U.N. security resolutions, forcing many residents in northern Israel to flee to the center of the country. The trade of fire between Israel and Hezbollah turned into an all-out war last month.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.