Israel continues to hit Hezbollah targets related to its economic system, while the US has assured that it is working to end the war as soon as possible.
Within 24 hours the Israeli military hit 300 targets linked to Hezbollah and among them were an underground shelter in one of Lebanon’s largest hospitals, in which the organization had stored millions of dollars.
According to IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Haggari, Israel estimates there is about “half a billion dollars in dollar bills and gold” in a bunker under Al Sahel Hospital, in the southern Beirut suburb known as Dahiya, where Hezbollah has a largely its headquarters.
As he said, the money “could have been used to restore Lebanon, but it went to finance Hezbollah’s attacks against Israel.”
He warned that the Israeli air force was monitoring the compound, but stressed that Israel would not launch a strike on the hospital itself, as it is at war with Hezbollah and not the Lebanese people, the Times of Israel report said.
“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
Before the airstrikes, the IDF’s Arabic-speaking spokesman, Lt. Col. Avihai Andrai, ordered residents of several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate the area, warning that they were “close to facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah.”
The previous day Israel had hit 30 targets linked to the Al-Qard al-Hassan financial company, which is linked to Hezbollah and provides interest-free loans, based on Islamic lending principles, to the Shia community.
The hospital was evacuated
Despite Haggari’s assurances that the hospital would not be affected, its director, Fadi Alameh, moved patients to a safer location.
Alameh told local Al-Jadeed TV that the hospital, which has been in the area for 42 years, has underground surgery rooms and has no ties to Hezbollah or any political group.
Following the evacuation calls, Beirut residents reported several loud explosions in the Dahiyeh area, and Lebanese media reported that at least 13 Israeli airstrikes had been launched on the Hezbollah stronghold.
Lebanon’s health ministry said four people, including a child, were killed in airstrikes near the country’s largest public hospital and 24 others were injured. The strike caused “significant damage to the hospital,” the health ministry said, including to the entrance, “which is still operating and receiving a large number of patients.”
Casualties have been reported at the Site of the Israeli Airstrike earlier near Hariri University Hospital in Downtown Beirut, with Civil Defense Teams searching through the Rubble for Survivors. pic.twitter.com/kTxRL9is28
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 21, 2024
Threats to the US
On a visit to Beirut, US special envoy Amos Hoxtyn assured that Washington is working to end the war “as soon as possible”, based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006), which referred to the end of the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The decision stipulated that non-state armed organizations were to withdraw from southern Lebanon, where – at least in theory – only the blue helmets and the Lebanese army are allowed to be deployed.
As the head of American diplomacy begins today in Israel a new tour – the eleventh since October 2023 – to the region, Tehran issued a warning to the US, stressing that they will bear “full responsibility” and be “complicit” in the event of an Israeli “attack”.
The Iranian diplomatic mission to the United Nations reacted in this way to a statement made by US President Joe Biden who said he knows how and when Israel will retaliate against Iran’s October 1 attack.
In Washington, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that the advanced anti-missile defense system sent to Israel was now “in position”.
After Israel, Anthony Blinken plans to travel to Jordan, in order to discuss with Jordanian officials in particular the delivery of humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip, a US official who was on the plane in which the US Secretary of State is traveling said yesterday.
BREAKING:
Israeli is dropping bombs near Rafik Hariri Hospital in Beirut — the city’s main public and largest government hospital. pic.twitter.com/n0y4tn1a9l
— sarah (@sahouraxo) October 21, 2024
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