Israel claims that Hezbollah keeps 500 million in gold bars in a bunker under a Beirut hospital

MADRID 21 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Israeli Armed Forces reported this Monday that Hezbollah keeps 500 million dollars (about 462 million euros) in gold bullion in a bunker deliberately located under the Sahel Hospital in Beirut and that it was one of the bunkers of the deceased Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah.

“Today I am going to declassify intelligence information about a place that we have not attacked and where Hezbollah has millions of dollars in gold and cash,” said Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari in an appearance on social networks.

Hagari has shown a diagram depicting the hospital and underground facilities that include heated rooms, dormitories and infrastructure “for long periods of stay.” “According to the estimates we have, there are at least 500 million dollars stored in this bunker, in bundles of dollars and gold,” he indicated.

The military spokesman argued that “this money could have gone to rebuild the State of Lebanon”, but “it was exclusively for the use of the terrorist organization Hezbollah.”

“Air Force reconnaissance devices are monitoring the bunker (…). We urge the citizens of Lebanon, the Government and institutions of Lebanon and international organizations not to allow Hezbollah to obtain terrorist funds from under the hospital” , has appealed.

“We are not going to bomb the hospital,” Hagari promised, while revealing that the access to the bunker is inside the Ahmadi building and the Sahel Center building of the complex.

THE HOSPITAL DENIES THE ACCUSATIONS

The director of the Sahel Hospital, Fadi Alamé, has rejected the Israeli accusations and has announced a “forced” evacuation of the health center.

“The Israeli accusations about the Sahel Hospital are false, but we are forced to evacuate,” he said in statements to Al Yadid TV. “The Sahel Hospital has no relationship with the parties,” he added.

Furthermore, Alamé has urged the Lebanese Armed Forces to search the hospital to ensure that there is no tunnel under the building.

On Sunday, Israel announced an offensive against the headquarters of Al Qard Al Hasan in Lebanon. Bombings on eleven targets were recorded in the south of Beirut alone. There have also been attacks on the Bekaa Valley, also considered a Hezbollah stronghold.

The Al Qard al Hasan Association is a non-profit organization founded in 1983, according to Al Manar television, which is affiliated with Hezbollah. It offers interest-free loans following Islamic financial precepts in the microcredit format.

The Israeli Army unleashed a new invasion of Lebanon at the end of September after days of intense bombings and attacks against the country, including the coordinated explosion of thousands of communication devices, after more than eleven months of fighting with Hezbollah.

The resurgence in hostilities is part of the clashes for nearly a year, after Hezbollah attacked Israeli territory a day after the attacks carried out on October 7, 2023 by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and other Palestinian factions. , which led Israel to unleash a bloody offensive against the Gaza Strip.