Israel to target Hezbollah’s financial arm as it announces imminent strikes

Israel’s military announced on Sunday it will now take aim at Lebanon-based Hezbollah’s financial arm and plans to attack a “large number of targets” in the coming hours in Beirut and elsewhere.

Explosions began in Beirut’s southern suburbs about an hour later.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said they will issue evacuation warnings for people in parts of Beirut, and “anyone who will be near the sites used to finance Hezbollah’s terrorist activity is required to stay away from them immediately”.

The first warnings affected southern Beirut and the eastern Bekaa valley.

The strikes will target al-Qard al-Hassan “all over Lebanon,” a senior Israeli intelligence official said.

Its name in Arabic means “the benevolent loan” and Hezbollah has used it to entrench its support among the Shiite population in a country where state and financial institutions have failed in recent years.

Al-Qard al-Hassan in a statement called the decision to target it a sign of Israel’s “bankruptcy” and assured customers it had taken “measures” to ensure their funds were safe.

The registered non-profit organisation, sanctioned by both the US and Saudi Arabia, provides financial services and is also used by ordinary Lebanese.

The scope of the new Israeli evacuation warnings was not immediately clear.

A year of escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah over the war in Gaza turned into all-out war last month, and Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon early this month.

Israel’s announcement came a day after US defence secretary Lloyd Austin called civilian casualties in Lebanon “far too high” in the Israel-Hezbollah war, and urged Israel to scale back some strikes, especially in and around Beirut.

The announcement came as the Lebanese army said three soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on Sunday on their vehicle in southern Lebanon.

There was no comment on that from the Israeli military, which said it struck more than 100 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in the past day and continued ground operations there.

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

Israel’s military said Hezbollah fired more than 170 rockets into the country on Sunday. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said three people were slightly injured from a fire sparked by a rocket attack on the northern city of Safed.

Israel has increased strikes on southern neighbourhoods of Beirut known as the Dahiyeh, a crowded residential area where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

It is also home to many civilians unaffiliated with the militant group.