It looks like a treasure map: On Monday, the Israeli army released a 3D simulation showing three buildings above ground, the Al-Sahel Hospital and adjacent buildings in southern Beirut. The short film focuses primarily on what is supposed to be underneath the hospital. It sketches some rooms, in one of which there is a Hezbollah flag hanging on the wall, and in the last one you can see gold bars and money bags with supposedly hundreds of millions of dollars lying around. “According to our estimates, there is at least half a billion dollars in dollar bills and gold stored in this bunker,” said Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari. He did not provide any further evidence.
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The director of the hospital, a member of parliament from the Hezbollah-affiliated Amal party, denied the allegations, but had the hospital evacuated on Tuesday and journalists into the building. At the same time, an Israeli army spokesman tweeted calls not to be blinded and to go to the basement where the money is. Apparently nothing was found.
The terrorist organization's house bank is said to have laundered funds from its criminal activities
In recent days, the Israeli army has repeatedly targeted Hezbollah's financial system, especially the Al-Kard Al-Hassan Bank. At least 20 of its branches in Beirut and other parts of the country were attacked, sometimes destroying entire residential buildings whose branches were located on the ground floor. According to the Israeli army, Al-Kard Al-Hassan finances terrorism, pays Hezbollah fighters and facilitates arms purchases. When Hassan Nasrallah was killed at the end of October, large amounts of cash are said to have been destroyed by the bombs on the Hezbollah leader's bunker. Al-Kard Al-Hassan has in the past been accused by Western intelligence agencies of laundering or transferring funds from Hezbollah's drug trafficking and criminal activities into the country.
Al-Kard Al-Hassan means something like “The Good Loan”, it is a financial institution according to Islamic rules that prohibit interest and usury. The bank was founded in 1983 and is currently said to have around 300,000 private customers, mainly Shiite Lebanese. Hezbollah leader Nasrallah praised the bank in a speech in 2021 as a great asset for the Shiite community, saying that since its inception it has granted $3.7 billion in loans to 1.8 million customers.
The financier Iran is cash-strapped, which has consequences for Hezbollah
The majority of these were probably small loans; many Shiites bring gold or family jewelry to Al-Kard Al-Hassan and in return receive a loan for school fees or funerals. Hezbollah is said to have already assured many customers via WhatsApp that their deposits are still there. The bank had grown in reputation during Lebanon's economic crisis, which began in 2019 and wiped out many people's savings. While customers in the official sector were no longer able to get their dollars and the local currency lost 97 percent of its value, nothing changed for the customers of Al-Kard Al-Hassan Bank, they continued to get their money.
However, Hezbollah's overall financial situation appears to have deteriorated in recent years; the major financier Iran is in a serious economic crisis. Anger towards Hezbollah is growing, especially in southern Lebanon, because it apparently does not have the money to rebuild the houses and facilities destroyed by Israel. Or even to provide any significant humanitarian aid to the more than a million people who had to leave their homes. Things were different after the war in 2006, when around $120,000 was said to have been paid for each destroyed house.
Many Lebanese Hezbollah analysts believe that the attacks on the financial system are not so much intended to weaken Hezbollah's military strength, but rather psychological in nature to unsettle its followers.
The Israeli army spokesman said on Monday that the alleged gold treasure under the hospital would not be attacked, and that the war was not directed against the Lebanese people. A short time later, a bomb hit the neighborhood of Rafik Hariri Hospital, killing 13 people.
