Hezbollah cash vault hit, Israeli army says as it seeks to degrade movement’s funding

The Israeli army said on Monday its forces were pummelling Hezbollah’s financial arm, hitting more than two dozen targets including a bunker with tens of millions of dollars in cash and gold.

The strikes since Sunday night mark an expansion of Israel’s campaign against the Iran-backed group after a year of cross-border exchanges that escalated in late September into a full-blown war.

Israeli forces are now seeking to degrade the Shiite Muslim movement’s ability to fund its operations

“The Israeli Air Force carried out a series of precise strikes on these Hezbollah financial strongholds,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing.

“One of our main targets last night was an underground vault with tens of millions of dollars in cash and gold. The money was being used to finance Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel.”

He did not specify whether all of the money was destroyed by the strike.

Hagari then referenced a separate bunker also allegedly filled with cash and gold under the Sahel hospital in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, but said the vault had not been targeted yet by the Israeli military.

“According to the estimates we have, there is at least half a billion dollars in dollar bills and gold stored in this bunker,” Hagari said.