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At least 11 Israeli air strikes have hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, including at least three on branches of a Hezbollah-linked bank on Sunday evening, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
This follows a warning from the Israeli army that it would attack “important economic targets” associated with Hezbollah.
A Lebanese security source told AFP that at least two strikes landed near the country's only airport.
“We will strike many sites in the coming hours and more sites overnight. In the coming days, we will reveal how Iran finances Hezbollah's terror activities using civilian institutions and associations as cover,” said Israel’s military spokesman, Admiral Daniel Hagari.
A senior Israeli intelligence official said that the strikes are also aimed at “units within Hezbollah responsible for the organisation's economic system".
Shortly after the announcement, the Israeli army issued displacement orders to residents of Beirut's southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley to flee “several buildings located near Hezbollah facilities".
Al Qard Al Hassan, a Hezbollah-affiliated financial institution founded in 1983 and registered as an NGO in Lebanon, is the country’s largest provider of micro-credit, particularly among the Shiite community. It has 30 branches across Lebanon, including 15 in Beirut and its suburbs, mostly in Shiite areas.
The institution has gained significant popularity during Lebanon's financial crisis, which has left most of the traditional banking sector insolvent. It collects interest-free deposits and provides interest-free microloans, according to the principles of Islamic finance.
Al Qard Al Hassan is part of Hezbollah's network of welfare, which includes financial support, education and medical services. For Nadim Houry, executive director at the Arab Reform, this series of attacks suggests that the Israeli army now considers all Hezbollah-affiliated institutions to be military targets.
“Israel has decided (it already did so in 2006 to a certain extent but now a lot more) that anything remotely tied to Hezbollah will be attacked to weaken Hezbollah's community of support,” Mr Houry said.
Yet, civilians institutions “would lose their protected status as a civilian object only if they were somehow directly contributing to the war effort. But being a lending institution that benefits people close to Hezbollah does not make them a legitimate target", he added.
Preserving people’s “life savings”
The fate of the gold that clients usually put up as collateral at the bank is still unclear.
A statement published on Al Qard Al Hassan website shortly after the Israeli army's announcement that the institution would be attacked said that it had taken “all measures since the beginning of the war. These measures are sufficient to preserve the trust of the people’s deposits and their life savings".
Nour, 24, who tried to close her account and withdraw her gold collateral from Al Qard Al Hassan last week, said she was told: “We can’t return your gold right now.”
“They said you can give us the money but we won’t be able to return your money to you now, so it’s better to hold on to your money for the time being," Nour said.
“Under usual circumstances we would return the loan in cash to them and our gold would be returned to us within a maximum of 15 days. But this time they said, ‘keep the cash because we can’t tell you when your gold will return'.”
It was unclear to her whether that meant her and other depositors' gold had been moved to ensure the security of the institution’s assets.
“What are you going to do? Let them hit. At least we’e alive,” Mariam, a displaced resident of Dahieh who has put about $8,000 worth of her gold in Al Qard Al Hassan, told The National.