IDF claims to have found Hezbollah bunker under Beirut hospital

Israel’s military claims to have found a bunker full of “cash and gold” belonging to former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah under a hospital in southern Beirut.

Without providing evidence, spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli agents had discovered the bunker under the Sahel General Hospital in Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighbourhood, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Hospital director Fadi Alameh denied there are tunnels under the hospital and said the facility is now being evacuated.

Alameh, who also represents the area around the hospital in the Lebanese parliament, called on the Lebanese army and other institutions to visit the area and inspect whether the underground spaces in fact exist.

Alameh told local TV station Al-Jadeed that Sahed General is a private medical centre that features underground operating theatres. He said the hospital has been in the area for 42 years and insisted it is not linked to any political group.

Meanwhile, Hagari also accused Iran of sending “suitcases of cash and gold” to the Iranian embassy in Beirut, saying the money goes “directly to Hezbollah”.

He added that Israeli strikes had killed the main Hezbollah leaders responsible for transferring money between Iran and Hezbollah.

IDF strikes have hit several branches of a financial institution linked to Hezbollah, Al-Qard Al-Hasan, and Israel said on Monday it plans to carry out more strikes against the financial institution, which it says uses customers’ deposits to finance attacks against Israel.

One strike flattened a nine-story building in Beirut with a branch inside it. The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes, and there were no reports of casualties.

Hagari said Israeli forces will not attack the Sahel General Hospital. However, Lebanon’s Health Ministry say an Israeli airstrike near Beirut’s Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the largest public hospital in Lebanon, killed four people on Monday, leaving 24 wounded.

It was the first strike on the Lebanese capital in 10 days.

Hezbollah fires rockets into central Israel

As Israel steps up its strikes in Lebanon and troops push ahead in their invasion of the country’s south, Hezbollah has also fired more rockets into Israel.

Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel on Tuesday, setting off air raid sirens in the country’s most populated areas but causing no apparent damage or injuries.

The IDF said five projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel and that most were intercepted by Israel’s missile defence system, while one landed in an open area.

According to the military, about 15 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel at around the same time.