Israel announces that it will attack financial arm of Hezbollah

Deir Al-Balah. The Israeli army announced on Sunday that it will attack the financial arm of the Lebanese group Hezbollah and that in the coming hours it will bomb “a large number of targets” in Beirut and elsewhere. About an hour later, explosions began to be heard in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israel will issue evacuation orders for people in certain parts of Beirut, and “anyone who is near sites used to finance Hezbollah’s terrorist activity should leave immediately.”

The strikes will target al-Qard al-Hassan “throughout Lebanon,” an Israeli intelligence official said. This registered non-profit group, sanctioned by both the United States and Saudi Arabia, provides financial services and is also used by ordinary Lebanese.

Al-Qard al-Hassan is a Hezbollah unit used to pay Hezbollah agents and to buy weapons, said the official, who asked not to be identified as required by army regulations.

Meanwhile in the Gaza Strip, Israeli attacks on several homes in the northern strip early Sunday left at least 87 people dead or missing, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Another 40 people were wounded in attacks on the town of Beit Lahiya, which was one of the first targets of the Israeli ground invasion almost a year ago. The Israeli military said it had launched a precise strike against a Hamas target.

Israel has launched a large-scale operation in northern Gaza over the past two weeks, arguing that Hamas has regrouped there. Palestinian officials said hundreds of people have died and the health sector in the north is on the brink of collapse.

Meanwhile, the United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents assessing Israel’s plans to attack Iran, three US officials revealed. A fourth U.S. official said the documents appear to be legitimate.

The documents, attributed to the United States Geospatial Intelligence and Homeland Security agencies and marked top secret, indicate that Israel would be moving military assets to carry out a military strike in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on October 1 .

The US officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The United States is urging Israel to push for a ceasefire in Gaza following the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week. But neither Israel nor the militant group has shown interest in such an agreement, after months of negotiations that stopped in August.

Iran supports Hamas and the political-paramilitary group Hezbollah in Lebanon, where a year of rising tensions led to outright war last month. Israel sent ground troops to Lebanon in early October.

The Lebanese army said three of its soldiers were killed when their vehicle was attacked by Israel in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army did not immediately comment on Sunday’s attack.

Lebanon’s military has largely stayed out of the war between Israel and Hezbollah. The army is a respected institution in Lebanon, but it is not powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah or defend the country from an Israeli invasion.

On Saturday, a drone attacked the home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leaving no victims. It is unclear if the house was hit. The military said Hezbollah fired about 160 projectiles at Israel on Sunday. At the moment there are no deaths reported.

Meanwhile, Israel has stepped up attacks on Beirut’s southern neighborhoods, known as Dahiyeh, a densely populated residential area. Hezbollah has a strong presence there, but many civilians and people not affiliated with the militant group also live there.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said civilian deaths in Lebanon were “too high” in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, and urged Israel to scale back some attacks, particularly in and around Beirut.

Among those killed in the attacks in Beit Lahiya were two parents and their four children, and a woman, her son and daughter-in-law and her four children, according to Raheem Kheder, a doctor. He said the attack leveled a multi-story building and at least four neighboring houses.

The Israeli military said it used precise ammunition against a Hamas target and denied the death toll published by the press office of the Hamas-led government, which is independent of the Health Ministry. He added that the area is an active war zone and that he tries not to hurt civilians.

Mounir al-Bursh, director general of the Ministry of Health, said on the social network

Six people, including a minor, were killed when an attack hit a car in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital reported. The bodies were counted by AP journalists.

Doctors Without Borders, the international charity known by its French acronym MSF, called on Israeli forces to “immediately stop their attacks on hospitals in northern Gaza” after the Health Ministry said Israeli troops attacked two hospitals during the end. of week.

The military said it was carrying out an operation near one of the hospitals, but had not attacked it directly, and that it was investigating the other incident.

“The worsening escalation of violence and relentless Israeli military operations that we have witnessed over the past two weeks in northern Gaza have terrible consequences,” said Anna Halford, an emergency coordinator at MSF.

“When hospitals are attacked, their infrastructure destroyed and electricity cut, the lives of patients and medical staff are at risk.”

Internet connectivity was disrupted in northern Gaza on Saturday night and had not yet been restored as of midday Sunday, making it difficult to gather information about the attacks.

Israel has been carrying out a major operation in the Jabaliya urban refugee camp, also in northern Gaza, for two weeks. The army says it launched the operation against Hamas militants who had regrouped there.

During the war, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to Jabaliya, a densely populated urban refugee camp that dates back to the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel.

The north has suffered the greatest destruction of the war, and has been surrounded by Israeli forces since late last year, following Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel.

Israel ordered the entire population of the northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, to evacuate to the south in the first weeks of the war and reiterated those instructions earlier this month. Most of the population fled over the course of the year, but around 400,000 people are believed to have remained in the north.

Palestinians who fled the north at the start of the war have not been allowed to return.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants stormed Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping another 250. About a hundred hostages are still being held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be that are dead.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local authorities, who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced nearly 90 percent of its population of 2.3 million people.