“The Israeli Air Force is monitoring the area. But we will not attack the hospital itself,” Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said, according to Reuters. Shortly before that, he announced at a press conference that under this hospital there is a secret bunker of the Hezbollah movement, in which over 500 million dollars (about 11.5 billion crowns) in gold and banknotes are hidden.
“That money could have been used to rehabilitate (the economy of) Lebanon, but it went to rehabilitate Hezbollah,” Hagari said today. “The (Israeli) Air Force is monitoring the site and will continue to monitor it,” he added. He also stated that Israel will continue to attack Hezbollah’s financial institutions.
The Israeli army struck dozens of branches of the Al-Kard al-Hasan institution in Lebanon last night, which it says finances Hezbollah’s operations. According to Israel, Hezbollah has hundreds of millions of dollars in these branches, which it also uses to buy weapons. At a press conference today, Hagari described how Hezbollah uses money for its operations and how it receives part of it from Iran.
According to the AP agency, Al-Kard al-Hasan is officially a non-profit charitable institution operating outside the Lebanese financial system and is one of the tools used by Hezbollah to strengthen its support among the country’s Shiite population. In addition to the military wing, Hezbollah also has ministers in the government and members of parliament, as well as organizations that run schools, hospitals, and cheap grocery stores.
According to AP, Al-Kard al-Hasan has more than 30 branches throughout Lebanon. During the financial crisis that hit the country a few years ago, this institution helped many Lebanese, because unlike banks that limited withdrawals from bank accounts, Al-Kard al-Hasan did not introduce limits.
The US Department of Finance also considers Al-Kard al-Hasan to be an institution that Hezbollah uses to finance its military wing, and because of this it imposed sanctions on it in 2007.