Lebanon assesses damage after wave of Israeli strikes on Hezbollah-run financial institution

 Beirut:  Lebanese were surveying the damage on Monday after overnight Israeli strikes hit nearly a dozen branches of a Hezbollah-run financial institution that Israel says is used to fund attacks but where many ordinary people keep their savings.

 The strikes targeted Al-Qard Al-Hassan branches in the southern neighbourhoods of Beirut, across southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa, where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

 One strike flattened a nine-story building with a branch inside it. Smoke was still rising from several locations on Monday and bulldozers were removing the debris.

 The Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes, and there were no reports of casualties.

 Israel invaded Lebanon earlier this month, saying it aims to push Hezbollah back from the border after more than a year of rocket, missile and drone attacks that began after Palestinian Hamas militants launched their surprise October 7, 2023, attack into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israeli airstrikes have pounded large areas of Lebanon for weeks, forcing over a million people to flee their homes.

 Avichay Adraee, the Arabic language spokesman for the Israeli military, said warplanes targeted several locations “used to store money for the military arm of Hezbollah”, including Al-Qard Al-Hassan, which he said finances arms purchases and is used to pay Hezbollah fighters.

 He said Hezbollah stores hundreds of millions of dollars in the branches, without providing evidence, and that the strikes were aimed at preventing the group from rearming.

 In a series of tweets late Sunday, the Israeli military released maps noting the locations of the branches it planned to target, asking residents nearby to evacuate. Thousands of people fled, jamming streets in the capital.

 Local Lebanese TV networks sought to reassure the public that areas in central Beirut were not listed as targets after a map issued by the Israeli military indicated it would target an upscale mall that was incorrectly labelled as the location of a branch. The Israeli military did not target the site.

 The institution, which has more than 30 branches across Lebanon, tried to reassure customers, saying it had evacuated all its branches and relocated gold and other deposits to safe areas.

 The registered nonprofit, sanctioned by the United States and Saudi Arabia, has long served as an alternative to Lebanon’s banks, which have imposed restrictions in the face of a severe financial crisis that began in 2019.

 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. Still, many of its customers are civilians unaffiliated with Hezbollah.

 The strikes came 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.

 In a separate development, the Israeli military apologised for a strike on Sunday in southern Lebanon that killed three Lebanese army soldiers. It said it targeted a vehicle in an area that Hezbollah had recently used for attacks without realising it belonged to the Lebanese military.

 The military said it is “not operating against the Lebanese Army and apologises for these unwanted circumstances”.

 Lebanon’s army is a respected institution within the country, but it is not powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah or defend Lebanon from Israel’s invasion. The army has largely kept to the sidelines as Israel and Hezbollah have traded blows over the past year.