Israel attacks banks across Lebanon to damage Hezbollah’s finances – NBC New York

The Israeli army attacked bank branches across Lebanon overnight to attack Hezbollah’s finances, expanding its offensive in an attack that sparked panic as the United States launched a new push for a diplomatic solution to the intensifying regional conflict, NBC News reports.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to travel to the Middle East on Monday for a trip that will focus on talks to end the US ally’s conflict with Iran-backed militant groups in Lebanon and Gaza, following the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – and amid growing outrage over Israel’s deadly attack on the northern Palestinian enclave, where the United Nations said life had been made ‘impossible’.

But it also comes as Israel prepares an attack on Iran itself.

An advanced anti-missile system sent by the US was now in place in Israel, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said early Monday, strengthening defenses as the US investigated an apparent leak of top-secret documents showing US spy agencies’ possible Israeli preparations for follow the attack. strike.

Israel targets bank branches across Lebanon

Hundreds of residents of Lebanon’s capital and surrounding suburbs were forced to suddenly flee their homes on Sunday evening after the Israeli army issued a series of evacuation orders, with explosions sounding soon after.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari warned that the evacuation orders for residents of Beirut and other parts of Lebanon anticipate attacks on buildings that he said are “used to finance Hezbollah’s terrorist activities.”

Hagari did not name which institutions were targeted, but during the night a series of branches of the Al-Qard Al-Hassan bank were hit by a volley of airstrikes. The US and Israel have linked the bank to the Iran-backed militant and political group.

An NBC News crew in Beirut heard the explosions resounding as Lebanese national media reported attacks on bank branches in the city’s southern suburbs. A video shared on social media and geolocated by NBC News showed buildings on fire and collapsing after apparent airstrikes.

Jeanine Hennis, the United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, cited “widespread panic” across the country following the evacuation orders. Posting to X on Sunday, she said there was only a “short window to get to safety” before “intense explosions” occurred.

“I can’t describe the panic,” Beirut resident Wafaa Ezeldinne told NBC News after fleeing her home before returning hours later. “Everyone was on the streets. Even displaced people left locations near Al-Qard Al-Hassan. Streets were full of cars and people at night.”

Ranim Halawani, who works with the Development for People and Nature Association, or DPNA, in the coastal town of Saida, told NBC News that she and others also fled their homes after hearing about the evacuation orders. In the end, she said, “We didn’t have an attack in Saida, but people were scared and left.” She said many have since returned to their homes.

Al-Qard Al-Hassan, or AQAH, has been under US sanctions since 2007, with the Treasury Department describing the bank as being used by Hezbollah “as a front to manage the terrorist group’s financial activities” and to “gain access to the international community”. financial system.”

In the years since, Finance Ministry officials have continued to accuse Hezbollah of using the bank to “abuse the Lebanese financial sector and drain Lebanon’s financial resources at an already difficult time” in a country struggling with long-term economic and political crises.

Al-Qard Al-Hassan, which translates to “the good loan,” has more than 30 branches across Lebanon, according to local media, many of which are located in the Shiite-majority southern suburbs of Beirut, and at least some seem to be related to that. to residential buildings.

Israel’s attacks on the bank marked an expansion of the war against Hezbollah beyond what the IDF has described as attacking the group’s military sites.

The IDF said on Monday that Israeli soldiers also continued to carry out ground attacks on southern Lebanon and had dismantled “large quantities of Hezbollah weapons”, while also killing Hezbollah members, including “tactical-level commanders”.

At least 2,464 people, including 127 children, have been killed in Lebanon since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah began escalating last year following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack, while an estimated 1.2 million people have been displaced, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry . from their homes.

In an interview with Al Arabiya on Monday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he believed there would be “no solution other than through diplomacy” to end the fighting in the region, but that he had not had any direct contact since the middle had with Hezbollah. from last month.

Israeli soldiers are making life ‘impossible’ in northern Gaza, the UN says

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue a deadly offensive in northern Gaza, with dozens of people killed this weekend in Israeli airstrikes in the areas of Beit Lahia and the nearby Jabalia refugee camp, according to local health officials.

The IDF said on Monday that troops had killed militants and continued to dismantle militant infrastructure and tunnel shafts in the Jabalia refugee camp area over the past day. The army said troops were also operating in southern and central Gaza.

The United Nations Human Rights Office said in a statement that it was “increasingly concerned that the Israeli army’s conduct of hostilities in northern Gaza” may “cause the destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza’s northernmost governorate through death and displacement. “

According to the report, this appears to be especially the case in areas such as Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun.

Over the past two weeks, the Israeli army has taken measures that make life in northern Gaza impossible for Palestinians, while repeatedly ordering the relocation of the entire governorate.

Zoya Awky reported from Zouk Mosbeh and Chantal Da Silva from London

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