Middle East Crisis: Israel claims Hezbollah hiding USD 500 million in gold and silver in bunker under Beirut hospital
Israel has accused Hezbollah of allegedly hiding over USD 500 million in gold and silver in a secret bunker located beneath a Beirut hospital, media reports said.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, said the money bunker was located beneath the al-Sahel hospital in southern Beirut.
“The Israeli Air Force carried out a series of precise strikes on these Hezbollah financial strongholds,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing as quoted by The Times of Israel.
“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.”
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 21, 2024
Listen to IDF Spox.… pic.twitter.com/SjMZQpKqoJ
“One of our main targets last night was an underground vault with tens of millions of dollars in cash and gold. The money was being used to finance Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel,” he said
He said Israel was at war against Hezbollah and not the Lebanese people.
Ongoing airstrikes across Lebanon “continue to kill and injure civilians and displace a growing number of families,” according to the latest update from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“Late last night, hundreds of people were reportedly displaced in Beirut and across the country following Israeli displacement orders identifying a social finance network affiliated with Hezbollah,” said Farhan Haq, UN Deputy Spokesperson, briefing journalists in New York on Monday.
The scale of displacement has overwhelmed available shelters. “As of the weekend, nearly 1,100 collective shelters have opened in Lebanon hosting some 192,000 displaced people. More than 900 of these shelters are already at full capacity,” Haq added.
The highest percentage of those internally displaced has been recorded in Beirut and Mount Lebanon Governorate, he said.
Facilities destroyed
The airstrikes have also damaged crucial humanitarian infrastructures. “As a result of one of these airstrikes in the southern suburbs of the capital last night, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA-supported safe space for women and girls was destroyed, alongside a primary healthcare centre,” Haq reported.
He added that the facility “had provided counselling services, legal aid and referrals for hundreds of women at risk and survivors of gender-based violence in one of Beirut’s most vulnerable communities.”
In Beirut, Bekaa and Mount Lebanon, 10 facilities supported by UNFPA – including primary healthcare sites, safe spaces, and mobile maternity units – have closed due to insecurity.
