Hezbollah has stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in a bunker built under a hospital in Beirut, Israel’s military said on Monday (October 21, 2024), adding it will not strike the facility as it keeps up attacks against the group’s financial assets.
Fadi Alameh, a Lebanese lawmaker with the Shi’ite Amal Movement party and the director of the hospital in question, Al-Sahel, told Reuters that Israel was making false and slanderous claims and called on the Lebanese Army to visit and show it only had operating rooms, patients and a morgue.
Mr. Alameh said the hospital was being evacuated. Israel’s military said it was not going to strike the facility.
Reuters could not independently verify the details provided by the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, which he said had been collected by Israeli intelligence for years.
Also read: Israel-Hezbollah conflict: All you need to know about the escalating cross-border tension
Hezbollah could not immediately be reached for comment.
In a televised statement, Mr. Hagari said Hezbollah’s former leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whom Israel killed last month, had built the bunker which was designed for lengthy stays.
“Tonight, I am going to declassify intelligence on a site that we did not strike—where Hezbollah has millions of dollars in gold and cash—in Hassan Nasrallah’s bunker. Where is the bunker located? Directly under Al-Sahel Hospital in the heart of Beirut.”
Listen to IDF Spox.… pic.twitter.com/SjMZQpKqoJ
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 21, 2024
“There are hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold inside the bunker right now. I’m calling on the Lebanese government, Lebanese authorities, and the international organizations — don’t allow Hezbollah to use the money for terror and to attack Israel,” Mr. Hagari said.
“The Israeli Air Force is monitoring the compound, as you can see. However, we will not strike the hospital itself,” Mr. Hagari said.
Israeli Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi told troops in Lebanon that overnight between Sunday (October 20, 2024) and Monday (October 21, 2024), aircraft had struck around 30 sites belonging to Al-Qard al-Hassan, which Israel says is Hezbollah’s financial arm.
Mr. Hagari said more strikes against Hezbollah financial sites were to continue.
Published – October 22, 2024 12:28 pm IST
