Israel’s military attacks on militant groups in southern Lebanon and its consequences for Hezbollah’s financial arm and for a civilian population in Gaza

Israeli strikes on homes in northern Gaza overnight and into Sunday left at least 87 people dead or missing, the territory’s Health Ministry said, as a large-scale operation continued against Hamas militants said to be regrouping.

Three U.S. officials said that the United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents which indicated that Israel was moving military assets into place for a military strike in response to the missile attack on Iran. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the matter publicly.

The UN’s peacekeepers mission said Israeli forces demolished the perimeter fence of a position in southern Lebanon on Sunday. It again resisted Israeli pressure to leave its positions.

Israel’s military said on Sunday that it is attacking Hezbollah’s financial arm as well as a number of targets in Lebanon and around the world. There were explosions in the south of Lebanon about an hour later.

Lebanon’s army has largely kept to the sidelines in the war. The military is a respected institution in Lebanon, but isn’t powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah or defend the country from an Israeli invasion.

TEL AVIV, Israel, and BEIRUT — Israel’s military carried out airstrikes overnight on targets in Lebanon that the military says are linked to a financial institution that undergirds the militant group Hezbollah. Lebanon is assessing the damage.

Hezbollah’s presence in southern neighborhoods of Lebanon has led to Israel increasing strikes there. It is also home to many civilians unaffiliated with the militant group.

In one evacuation notice, for the Choueifat area south of Beirut, the Israeli military mislabeled one target, causing confusion and panic. The location was labeled as Grand Cinema ABC Verdun, a theater in an upscale shopping mall in central Beirut more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) away.

Doctors Without Borders: Calling for Stopping Israeli Forces’ Attacks on Gaza Hospitals after the High-Energy Gaza War

A year of escalating tensions and frequent cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the war in Gaza turned into all-out war last month. Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon early this month.

For months, Hochstein has been tasked by the White House with calming the Israel-Lebanon conflict. Israel’s military had announced new ground raids in southern Lebanon, killing fighters and dismantling anti-tank missiles and other explosives prior to his arrival in Lebanon. Around 200 missiles were fired into northern Israel from Lebanon on Sunday, but two dozen missiles crossed the border in the early hours of Monday.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 captives are still being held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

In the opening weeks of the war, Israel told the entire population of the northern third of Gaza to leave and again this month. Around 400,000 people are believed to have remained.

It was difficult to gather information about strikes after the internet went down in northern Gaza.

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 had fired on two hospitals over the weekend.

The attack of a militant group on a Gaza highway is a threat to Israel and Hamas, and Israel’s bankruptcy

In central Gaza, six people, including a child, were killed when a strike hit a car in Deir al-Balah, Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital officials said. AP journalists counted the dead.

The U.S. is urging Israel to press for a cease-fire in Gaza following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week. But neither Israel nor Hamas has shown interest in such a deal after negotiations sputtered to a halt in August.

Among the dead were parents and eight children, according to Raheem Kheder, a medic. He said the strike destroyed a multistory building and four nearby houses.

Al-Qard al-Hassan in a statement called the decision to target it a sign of Israel’s “bankruptcy” and assured customers it had taken “measures” to ensure their funds were safe. A stream of people left the areas surrounding its branches in Beirut.

“AQAH is a cash-based organization. He said that the cash will be useless in the event of a strike.

David Asher, an expert on underground financing who is now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said it was a big deal.

The U.S. has long sanctioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan, saying it is used to manage finances by Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese militia and political movement that the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization.

First Israeli attacks on a microfinance institution in Lebanon: The Bekaa valley, Lebanon, and the Netanyahu family home in Caesarea

In southern Lebanon and eastern Bekaa valley there were warnings that had to be evacuated. AP video showed strikes near Lebanon’s only airport but it continued to operate.

The army of Israel published messages in Arabic on Sunday telling inhabitants of Lebanon to move away from the buildings that hold the Al- Qard Al-Hassan bank branches.

While United Nations representatives said the warnings sparked panic in parts of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, Israel’s foreign minister said 15 buildings were struck and its military would continue to attack Hezbollah.

Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, wrote on social media that Al-Qard Al-Hassan was a “microfinance institution” modeled after the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. She said the Lebanese institution “provides small loans to low income individuals against specific assets” — in some cases allowing women to offer their jewelry as collateral, in a country where the mainstream internationally linked banking system has repeatedly collapsed.

The Hezbollah lawmaker insisted that the group didn’t profit from Al-Qard Al-Hassan. He said the financial institution offers services to all Lebanese consumers and has granted some 5,000 scholarships to university students overseas. “We tell the depositors in Al-Qard Al-Hassan that you will not lose a single penny,” he wrote on Telegram.

According to news outlets and social media posts, the hospital was evacuated due to its proximity to the strike on the branch. The hospital was functioning normally, according to a statement from Lebanon’s health ministry. It said that patients had been moved out of rooms in the vicinity of the hospital because of the Israeli threats.

Precise details of fatalities and injuries tied to the strikes overnight into Monday have not yet been confirmed. Lebanon’s National News Agency said the strikes on at least one of the financial branches caused damage to other floors in the same building, as well as neighboring buildings, including nearby stores. The agency said that “severe damage to surrounding homes” and a nearby radio station had been caused by the strike on one branch.

The office of the prime minister says that a drone from Lebanon has targeted the Netanyahu family home in Caesarea. Sara Netanyahu described it in a post on social media as an attempt to kill the prime minister of Israel and an attack on all of us.