DEIR AL-BALAH: Israel's military announced Sunday it will now take aim at the Lebanon-based Hezbollah's financial arm and plans to attack a “large number of targets” in the coming hours in Beirut and elsewhere.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said they will issue evacuation warnings for people in parts of Beirut, and “anyone who will be near the sites used to finance Hezbollah’s terrorist activity is required to stay away from them immediately.”
The strikes will target al-Qard al-Hassan "all over Lebanon,” a senior Israeli intelligence official said. Al-Qard al-Hassan is a unit in Hezbollah that's used to pay operatives of the Iran-backed militant group and help buy arms, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with army regulations.
The registered nonprofit, sanctioned by both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, provides financial services and is also used by ordinary Lebanese.
The scope of the new Israeli evacuation warnings was not immediately clear.
A year of escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah over the war in Gaza turned into all-out war last month, and Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon early this month.
Israel's announcement came a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called civilian casualties in Lebanon “far too high” in the Israel-Hezbollah war, and urged Israel to scale back some strikes, especially in and around Beirut.
Iran supports the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, and the United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents indicating that Israel was moving military assets into place for a military strike in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Oct. 1, according to three U.S. officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.