UN condemns damage from Israeli strikes in Beirut

After a series of attacks around the country targeting what it says is Hezbollah's fundraising infrastructure, Israel's IDF military said late on Monday that there was one known cash deposit it would not target. 

Instead, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel was declassifying its intelligence information on the site.

Hagari said a network of tunnels contained stockpiles of cash and gold, as well as command rooms and sleeping facilities, "directly under Sahel Hospital" in central Beirut.

He described it as deceased Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's bunker. The accompanying and unverifiable video showed what purported to be the building plans below ground level at the site.

"There are hundreds of millions of dollars of cash and gold inside the bunker, right now," Hagari said. 

"The Israeli Air Force is monitoring the compound, as you can see. However, we will not strike the hospital itself," he said, adding Israel was trying to wage war on Hezbollah rather than the Lebanese people. 

The United Nations on Monday condemned airstrikes that Israel claimed had targeted the militant group Hezbollah's financial system in Lebanon. 

Citing "extensive damage to civilian objects," the UN Human Rights Office in the Middle East and North Africa on Monday released a statement reading: "We condemn the heavy Israeli bombardment of various urban and residential areas ... which the IDF (Israeli military) says targeted various facilities affiliated with the Al-Qard Al-Hassan financial association." 

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari had previously announced: "One of our main targets last night was an underground vault with millions of dollars in cash and gold. The money was being used to finance Hezbollah's attacks on Israel." 

More than a dozen sites tied to the Iran-backed Islamists' finance system were hit in strikes carried out across Lebanon on Sunday.

"International humanitarian law must be always respected," the UN wrote-. "Civilians and civilian infrastructure are not a target."

While calling for a cease-fire, the UN office spoke of "indescribable panic and another wave of displacement among [Beirut] residents."

Israel's bombing campaign came two weeks after Israel assassinated an individual it called "Hezbollah's finance minister."

Israel has said that it is now focused on Hezbollah's finance system after having killed most of the group's top political and military leaders.

Hezbollah began attacking Israel shortly after Hamas militants in Gaza carried out the deadly October 7 terror attacks that preceded the current war.

Police in Israel said an Iranian espionage ring involving Israeli nationals had been dismantled.

In a statement, Israeli police said Israel’s internal security service and police arrested seven Israelis.

"This network was engaged in gathering sensitive information on IDF (military) bases and energy infrastructure," police said in a statement.

Police said that, in an investigation lasting two years, agents under the direction of Iranian intelligence carried out a number of operations in which information was passed on.

"The network members were aware that the intelligence they provided compromised national security and could potentially aid enemy missile attacks," Israeli police said.

Israel is currently engaged in a multifront conflict with Iranian-backed groups involving Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen.

On Monday, US envoy Amos Hochstein visited Lebanon in a bid to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said Monday there was no alternative to UN Resolution 1701 but added that "new understandings" could be reached to implement it.

The resolution, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, called for the Lebanese militant group to withdraw towards the north of the Litani River away from the Israel border, and mandated a UN peacekeeping mission to help the Lebanese army control the area free from the presence of Hezbollah or Israel. 

However, Israel maintains that the resolution was never implemented and that Hezbollah has built up extensive military infrastructure

In September, Israel launched an offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, killing most of its leadership and bombing sites it says are used by the Iran-backed group. Hundreds of people have been killed, thousands injured, and hundreds of thousands displaced in Lebanon

According to Hochstein, Resolution 1701 should be the basis for resolving the current conflict. However, he added that "commitment" to the resolution is not enough, and both sides need to implement the measures. 

"We are working with the State of Lebanon and Israel to end this conflict once and for all," Hochstein said. 

"Tying Lebanon's future to other conflicts in the region was not and is not in the interest of the Lebanese people," Hochstein told a press conference after meeting with Nabih Berri, Lebanon's parliament speaker and a Hezbollah ally, adding that the US wants to end the conflict "as soon as possible."

A report by Walla, an Israeli news website, suggests Israel handed a document to the US listing its principles for a cease-fire with Hezbollah.

According to the report, Israel wants a solution based on the UN's 1701 resolution from the end of the 2006 war between the two sides, with Israel reserving the right to operate locally in Lebanon's south to ensure that Hezbollah doesn't rebuild its military infrastructure in the region that’s close to Israel's northern border.

"If the Lebanese army and UNIFIL will do more [to prevent Hezbollah from rearming], we'll do less," an Israeli source told the website.

Israel started bombing Lebanese branches of a group accused of helping to finance the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, Lebanese state media reported late Sunday.

The AP news agency cited a senior Israeli intelligence official saying the strikes would target al-Qard al-Hassan "all over Lebanon," including a "large number of targets" in Beirut and elsewhere.

Explosions began in Beirut's southern suburbs about an hour later. Hundreds of Beirut residents fled their homes surrounding Al-Qard Al-Hassan branches.

Al-Qard Al-Hassan is used by ordinary Lebanese people but is also accused of helping finance Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany, and several Sunni Arab countries.

Al-Qard Al-Hassan is a financial firm offering micro-credit in Lebanon, where the traditional banking system collapsed five years ago at the start of an economic crisis. It is sanctioned by the US, which accuses Hezbollah of using it as a cover to mask the group's financial activities and gain access to the international financial system.

Israel says it is used to pay operatives of the militant group and to help buy arms.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported 11 strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, many of them targeting Al-Qard Al-Hassan.

Other strikes targeted the association in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley and the country's south, the agency said.

A strike was also reported to have landed near Beirut's airport, Lebanon's main entry point for humanitarian assistance and a key evacuation hub for those fleeing the conflict.

Al-Qard al-Hassan said the decision to target it was a sign of Israel's "bankruptcy" and assured customers it had taken "measures" to ensure their money was safe.

Israeli strikes in northern Gaza overnight into Sunday left at least 87 people dead or missing, according to the territory's Hamas-run Health Ministry.

The strikes took place on the town of Beit Lahiya, which was among the first targets of Israel's ground invasion nearly a year ago. 

At least eight children were reported to be among the dead. 

The Israeli military said it used precise munitions against a Hamas target as a large-scale operation continued against militants who were regrouping.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government said a drone targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house Saturday, with no casualties. 

"The attempt by Iran's proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife today was a grave mistake," Netanyahu said.

In a call with US presidential candidate Donald Trump, Netanyahu reiterated that Israel would act based on its interests.

Gaza's Health Ministry on Sunday said Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas in Gaza has now killed at least 42,603 Palestinians. 

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but the UN and multiple humanitarian organizations consider the casualty numbers broadly reliable.

The ministry says more than half the dead are women and children.

The war was sparked by the unprecedented Hamas attack last year that resulted in the deaths of some 1,200 people in southern Israel.

rc/wmr (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)