BEIRUT (AP) — Israel announced late Monday that it is planning additional attacks in Lebanon. Financial institutions operated by Hezbollah It claims to have targeted its targets the night before and uses customers’ deposits to fund attacks against Israel.
at least 15 branches Alucard Alhassan Late Sunday, damage occurred in Beirut’s southern neighborhoods, southern Lebanon, and the eastern Bekaa Valley, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. In Beirut, a single strike destroyed a nine-story building, including a branch office.
Israeli forces had issued an evacuation warning ahead of the attack, and there were no reports of casualties.
Associated Press reporters witnessed an airstrike late Monday in the coastal area of Ozai near Beirut’s airport, and the Lebanese Ministry of Health said an airstrike near Beirut’s largest public hospital killed four people, including a child, and killed 24 people. announced that he was injured. This is the first airstrike on the Lebanese capital. within 10 days.
Associated Press correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports that a Lebanese National Army soldier has been killed in an Israeli attack in Lebanon.
Israeli ground forces invaded Lebanon earlier this month. The military said it aims to drive Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon so that tens of thousands of Israelis can return to their nearby hometowns after more than a year of cross-border rocket and drone attacks. Israeli airstrikes have hit large areas of Lebanon for weeks, forcing more than a million people to flee their homes.
Hezbollah has fired rockets at Israel almost daily since last year’s deadly attack on Israel by Hamas that sparked the Gaza war.
The United States wants to revive diplomatic efforts to resolve both conflicts after the killings. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar Last week, so far all sides seem to be making progress.
Hezbollah-run financier fills void left by Lebanon’s struggling banks
Avichai Adlai, an Arabic-language spokesman for the Israeli military, has said, without providing evidence, that Hezbollah keeps hundreds of millions of dollars in a branch in al-Qad al-Hassan, and that the money is used to buy weapons and support fighters. He said that the money is being used to pay salaries. He said the strike was aimed at stopping the group from rearming.
The financial institution, which has more than 30 branches across Lebanon, sought to reassure customers, saying it had evacuated all branches and moved gold and other deposits to safe locations.
Many of its customers are civilians with no ties to Hezbollah. Alkad Alhassan, which is under sanctions from the United States and Saudi Arabia, has long imposed restrictions on its customers as an alternative to Lebanese banks. severe financial crisis It started in 2019.
Israeli military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari said late Monday that Israel was planning further attacks on al-Qad al-Hasan.
Hagari said Iran was funding Hezbollah by transferring cash and gold to the Iranian embassy in Beirut, but offered no evidence.
Hagari also said, without providing evidence, that Israeli intelligence had discovered a bunker belonging to a former Hezbollah leader. Hassan Nasrallah It is currently used as a vault under a hospital in southern Beirut. He said millions of dollars in gold and cash were stored there.
The hospital’s director, Lebanese parliament member Fadi Alameh, denied the claims and said the hospital had an underground operating room. Arame said the hospital was being evacuated in anticipation of a strike.
Hagari said Israeli airstrikes in Beirut in early October and in Syria on Monday also killed those responsible for transferring money between Iran and Hezbollah. Syrian state media reported that an Israeli airstrike hit a car in the capital Damascus, killing two people and injuring three others.
Monday’s Israeli airstrikes killed 17 people, including four first responders, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said Hezbollah fired 170 projectiles at Israel on Monday.
US special envoy says UN resolutions that ended past wars are ‘no longer good enough’
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who has spent much of the past year trying to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, returned to Lebanon on Monday for talks with senior officials.
he said United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701The policy that ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 was “no longer sufficient” to ensure peace, and new mechanisms were needed to enforce it.
The resolution called for Hezbollah to withdraw from the border with Israel and for UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army to take control of southern Lebanon without a Hezbollah or Israeli presence.
Israel claims that the resolution was never implemented and that Hezbollah has built an extensive military infrastructure right up to its borders. Lebanon has long accused Israel of violating its airspace and not complying with other provisions of the resolution.
After Sinwar’s death, US aims to revive Gaza ceasefire talks
The United States has expressed hope that last week’s killing of Hamas leader Sinwar could give new impetus to the Gaza ceasefire, which would provide a major boost to parallel efforts to halt fighting in Lebanon. are.
Ronen Bar, head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, visited Egypt for the second time in less than a week, an Egyptian official said on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to brief the media. I met with them.
The official said Egypt, the main intermediary between Israel and Hamas, remains opposed to Israel’s presence along the Gaza-Egypt border. key issues Negotiations were suspended in August.
Hamas says its demands have not changed after Sinwar’s killing. The extremist group announced it would release only a few dozen Israeli hostages in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, a permanent ceasefire, and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and retrieve all prisoners of war, and says Israel must maintain unrestricted security in Gaza to prevent Hamas from rearming.
October 7, 2023 Hamas-led armed group They punched a hole in Israel’s security fence and burst into the area, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. About 100 prisoners are still being held in Gaza, and a third of them are thought to be dead.
of israel attack in gaza More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish between fighters and civilians, but say most of the dead were women and children. war destroyed large areas of Gaza Approximately 90% of the population of 2.3 million people were evacuated.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Bassem Mourou in Beirut and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
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