Israel accuses Hezbollah of hiding gold, millions of dollars under hospital in Beirut

However, the hospital director, who is a Lebanese lawmaker, said Israel was making ‘false and slanderous’ claims.

Hezbollah has stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in a bunker built under a hospital in Beirut, Israel's military said on Monday, adding it will not strike the facility as it keeps up attacks against the group's financial assets.

TOPSHOT - Smoke rises from areas targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut�s southern suburbs late on October 21, 2024. Lebanese state media reported Israeli strikes on Hezbollah's south Beirut bastion including for the first time on the Ouzai district on October 21, 2024, shortly after the Israeli army warned residents of several districts to evacuate. (Photo by Fadel ITANI / AFP)

Fadi Alameh, a Lebanese lawmaker with the Shi'ite Amal Movement party and the director of the hospital in question, Al-Sahel, told Reuters that Israel was making false and slanderous claims and called on the Lebanese Army to visit and show it only had operating rooms, patients and a morgue.

Alameh said the hospital was being evacuated. Israel's military said it was not going to strike the facility.

Reuters could not independently verify the details provided by the Israeli military's chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, which he said had been collected by Israeli intelligence for years.

Hezbollah could not immediately be reached for comment.

In a televised statement, Hagari said Hezbollah's former leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whom Israel killed last month, had built the bunker which was designed for lengthy stays.

"The Israeli Air Force is monitoring the compound, as you can see. However, we will not strike the hospital itself," Hagari said.

Israeli Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi told troops in Lebanon that overnight between Sunday and Monday, aircraft had struck around 30 sites belonging to Al-Qard al-Hassan, which Israel says is Hezbollah's financial arm.

Hagari said more strikes against Hezbollah financial sites were to continue.