Following Israel’s wave of assaults on Hezbollah’s monetary community, significantly its unlawful financial institution masquerading as a charity, Al-Qard Al-Hassan, it launched an in depth video claiming a supposed $500 million stash of money and gold hidden in a bunker beneath a hospital.
Within the video, the IDF, as if talking on behalf of the Lebanese individuals, alleged that Hezbollah was storing over half a billion {dollars} value of money and gold “belonging to the individuals” in a bunker beneath Serhal Hospital in Dahye. It said that this cash got here from Iran and Lebanese sources and will assist alleviate Lebanon’s financial disaster.
The video featured an animated rendering of the hospital, claiming that the bunker was beforehand utilized by the late Hassan Nasrallah. It additionally detailed that the entrances to the bunker have been positioned in two adjoining buildings on both aspect of the hospital.
The IDF mentioned it wouldn’t goal the hospital however referred to as on the general public to retrieve the cash, including that they’d monitor the world to make sure Hezbollah didn’t transfer it.
When the media arrived on the hospital, the IDF launched one other video instructing them to search for the doorway within the adjoining buildings. Nevertheless, journalists reported that two males, supposedly from Hezbollah, denied them entry.
This state of affairs mirrored an analogous occasion in 2020 when Nasrallah invited the media to tour a manufacturing unit in Jnah after Netanyahu claimed it was a rocket manufacturing unit storing ammonium nitrate. Though many of the media, granted entry hours later, discovered an empty facility, 961 printed pictures and movies of ammonium nitrate and metallic sheets used to chop out rocket warheads, which have been discovered within the higher mezzanine of the manufacturing unit – an space the media wasn’t allowed to see.
So, what was the purpose of those theatrics now? Why not merely strike the bunker and forestall Hezbollah from utilizing the cash to rebuild itself?
Israel doubtless knew there could be no actual response as a result of individuals nonetheless concern Hezbollah. The tactic may very well be seen as justifying the continuation of its struggle, with the expectation that the Lebanese Military would step in, examine, and seize any funds to forestall an assault on the hospital. This may have demonstrated the Military’s skill to confront Hezbollah, particularly with such excessive stakes.
Nevertheless, this didn’t occur. Now, Israel can level to this as proof, displaying the U.S. and the world that Decision 1701 is inadequate to forestall additional battle, because the Lebanese Military and UNIFIL are unwilling to confront Hezbollah. This failure to implement the clauses of Decision 1701 may present Israel with a rationale to justify its ongoing struggle to the worldwide group and push for the total implementation of Decision 1559, which requires the disarmament of all militias and non-state actors – whether or not by pressure or by way of diplomacy.
