By The New York Times (World News) | Created at 2024-10-22 10:20:07 | Updated at 2024-10-22 12:34:45
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The Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah on Tuesday said it had launched a missile attack at an Israeli military base near Tel Aviv, which sent residents fleeing into shelters hours before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken arrived in Israel to push for an elusive cease-fire.
Israel’s military said five projectiles were fired at central Israel from Lebanon, adding that most were intercepted and that one fell in an open area. Hezbollah said it had targeted the Glilot base in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, which houses the headquarters of Unit 8200, a signals intelligence branch of the Israeli military. The militant group said it had also targeted a naval base outside the port city of Haifa. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage.
Mr. Blinken landed in Israel on Tuesday morning to continue the Biden administration’s efforts to calm the Middle East. He was also expected to travel to other countries in the region after his visit to Israel. The Israeli military has continued its attacks in Lebanon despite a U.S. official warning on Monday that the conflict there had “escalated out of control.”
Mr. Blinken was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon before heading to Tel Aviv to meet with the Israeli defense minister and president, according to the State Department. His visit comes after leaked U.S. intelligence documents describing Israeli military movements circulated late last week, pointing to a potential strike by Israel on Iran in the coming days and suggesting apprehensions among U.S. officials about its close ally’s war plans.
Israeli retaliation has been widely anticipated since Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles on its sworn adversary on Oct. 1. The scope of an Israeli strike on Iran, and the possibility that it could set off an all-out, costly war between them, has kept the world on edge.
Asked by reporters on Friday whether he was aware of when Israel was planning to strike Iran, and at what targets, President Biden responded: “Yes and yes.” Israel has assured U.S. officials that it won’t hit Iran’s oil production or nuclear enrichment sites, allaying some concerns about the potential fallout.
Here’s what to know:
Lebanese hospitals: At least 13 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike that landed near the main gate of the largest government hospital in Lebanon, the country’s health ministry said on Tuesday. Israel’s military said that it targeted Hezbollah in the strike on Monday, not the hospital. Israel also claimed that the militant group was operating in an underground command center beneath Al-Sahel Hospital south of Beirut, prompting evacuations.
Hezbollah finances: Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, signed an order adding Al-Qard al-Hassan, the Hezbollah-affiliated financial institution, to a list of groups designated by Israel as terrorist organizations. The designation was announced on Monday after the Israeli military targeted branches of the organization, which was already under U.S. sanctions over accusations that it finances terrorism.
Spy ring arrests: The Israeli authorities said they had arrested seven Israelis who were gathering intelligence for Iran. They are accused of photographing and collecting information on Israeli air force and navy installations, Iron Dome missile systems and a power plant, according to the Israeli police and Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency.
Lebanon troop deaths: The Israeli military apologized for the killings of three Lebanese soldiers in southern Lebanon on Sunday, saying it is “not operating against” the Lebanese Army, which is not a party to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
The death toll from the overnight Israeli strike near Rafik Hariri University Hospital has risen to 13, with 57 people wounded, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. The attack just south of Beirut — which came without warning — also damaged the hospital, the health ministry added. The hospital is the largest public health facility in the country.
Workers combed through the rubble on Tuesday morning after the strike.
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The Israeli military said Tuesday that it had not targeted the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in its wave of overnight strikes near Beirut. An Israeli strike near the entrance of the hospital killed at least four people, including a child, according to Lebanese officials. The Israeli military said it “struck a Hezbollah terror target.”
The Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings for some areas south of Beirut ahead of the strikes, but the one near Rafik Hariri University Hospital was not in an area covered by any warnings.
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For more than a year, Israel has restricted access to the sandy area between Israeli villages and the eastern border of Gaza. But on Monday, authorities made a rare exception for an event promoting settlement construction in the Gaza Strip, led by 10 members of the government and senior ministers, half from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party, and including the far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
Though only a few hundred, mostly religious, attendees gathered in the remote desert makeshift compound of wooden huts with white sheets as walls — built to reflect the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which commemorates the Israelites’ journey through the desert by spending time in temporary shelters — the event highlighted the influence of settler activists within the Israeli government and Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party.
In January, Mr. Netanyahu said that his government does not support plans to build settlements on the ruins of Gaza. His opposition likely stems from concerns that re-establishing settlements could complicate Israel’s security situation and damage its standing abroad, as settlements are considered illegal under international law. Israel also faces frequent criticism for the hardships Palestinians endure under Israeli military rule and the presence of settlers in the West Bank.
But as the war against Hamas continues with no end in sight, and uncertainty about Israel’s postwar plan looms, some in the Israeli leader’s coalition want to pressure him to reverse, or at least soften, his position on reviving Jewish settlements in Gaza.
“Everyone in Likud supports this as an idea,” said Avihai Boaron, a member of the Knesset from the Likud party who attended the event. “Our job now is to legitimize this as a plan.”
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For the majority of the world, the settlements, which were dismantled in Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, were viewed as a barrier to resolving the conflict — a stance that continues to apply to those in the West Bank.
But for settler activists who believe the Gaza Strip is part of a biblical land promised to the Jewish people, leaving it in 2005 wasn’t just a mistake: it was a sin. They argue that if a Jewish civilian population had remained there, protected by the military, Hamas would not have been able to carry out the brutal attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
Rebuilding Jewish settlements in Gaza, they now say, is the only thing that can ensure the security of Israelis. “This will prevent the next massacre,” said Yinon Goldstein, 23, a West Bank settler who is part of an activist group that aspires to establish New Gaza, or a Jewish metropolitan area in place of the devastated Palestinian Gaza City.
Polling since the beginning of the war has suggested that the majority of Israelis aren’t persuaded by these arguments, and some security experts disputed these claims, saying that the real motivations for building settlements in Gaza are religious, not practical.
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Behind the main stage, later taken by Mr. Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister — who praised efforts to encourage Palestinians to leave Gaza — and Mr. Smotrich, the finance minister, who vowed to reintroduce Jewish settlements in Gaza, clouds of smoke rose from a distant Palestinian town in the enclave, accompanied by the thunderous roar of artillery fire. Yet, the attendees seemed to pay little notice.
Most came for the day, but a group of about 10 settler activists hoping to be the first to rebuild in Gaza has been camping for several months a short drive from there — near a highway, under a concrete bridge, a mile and a half from the northeast corner of the Gaza border.
A squad of soldiers, still dusty from fighting in northern Gaza, stopped by for coffee. Their officer, Yaron Arkash, 24, a tall, bearded man with a dark complexion, asked one of the settlers camping there who in the government was pushing for resettling Gaza.
“If I could,” Mr. Arkash said, “I’d build a home there in a heartbeat.”
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Three Lebanese soldiers were killed on Sunday by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, drawing condemnation from the Lebanese Armed Forces and prompting Israel’s military to apologize for what it called “these unwanted circumstances.”
The Israeli military said on Sunday that its troops had struck a Hezbollah truck with a launcher on it and later struck again after seeing another truck in the same area, a “combat zone” where Hezbollah had attacked Israeli troops. But the military “later concluded that the truck was owned by the Lebanese Army, and that three operatives were killed.”
The deaths of the Lebanese soldiers highlighted the complicated dynamic that Lebanon’s army is navigating as Israel invades its territory to fight Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant and political group with significant influence in the country.
The Lebanese Army is not a party to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Still, Lebanon’s military does not support Israel’s invasion of its country, and referred to Israel as the “enemy” in statements on Sunday and Monday about the soldiers’ deaths, saying they were targeted when they were driving in an army vehicle in southern Lebanon.
By contrast, the Israeli military said in a statement that it is “not operating against the Lebanese Army and apologizes for these unwanted circumstances.”
It was the third time this month that Israeli troops have killed Lebanese soldiers amid Israel’s war with Hezbollah. And the incident came just a day before the Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun of the Lebanese Armed Forces met with Amos Hochstein, President Biden’s envoy on the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, to discuss the situation in Lebanon and “ways to support the Lebanese Army.”
American officials have expressed hope that Israel’s attacks will weaken Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terrorist organization, and loosen the group’s hold on Lebanese institutions and society. The United States has provided financial and training support to Lebanon’s armed forces, amounting to more than $3 billion since 2006.
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But if the Lebanese army were to get drawn into Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah, the United States would find itself in the awkward position of having two American-supported militaries fighting each other.
“It’s already tricky where you have U.S.-backed forces killing U.S.-backed forces,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior fellow and director of military analysis for Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank.
The risk of Lebanon’s army entering the fray is low, Ms. Kavanagh said. The army has long maintained a position of neutrality that has given it legitimacy with international players like the United States, which it would quickly lose if it joined the fight, she said.
“It would be difficult for the U.S. to fund the Lebanese Armed Forces if they fight Israel,” she said.
And Lebanon’s army adopted its neutral position in part because it is “extremely weak” economically and otherwise, Ms. Kavanagh said. Lebanon has been in a severe economic crisis since 2019, leaving the army scrambling to recruit, pay salaries, train and get equipment, and it is no match for either Israel or Hezbollah, she said.
But she said the view that Israel’s war against Hezbollah could prove advantageous for Lebanon in the long term is held mostly by those outside the country. The Lebanese army does want to be stronger, she said, but Israel “just taking out Hezbollah positions isn’t going to get it there.”
The Lebanese army was supposed to work with United Nations peacekeepers to ensure that Hezbollah militants could not operate in southern Lebanon, according to a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution, known as 1701, that ended the last war between Israel and Hezbollah. The army has been criticized for failing to enforce the terms of that resolution, which international diplomats are now seeking to revive.
In his visit to Lebanon on Monday, Mr. Hochstein, the American envoy, pledged to support Lebanon’s reconstruction if the U.N. resolution is enforced, seeming to suggest that the United States wants the Lebanese government to push for Hezbollah’s disarmament in southern Lebanon, and to deploy more Lebanese troops in its place.
But the army still plays an important role in Lebanon even if it is not undertaking the traditional job of a military to maintain its country’s territorial integrity. As long as Israel maintains its position that it is not at war with Lebanon or its people and is targeting only Hezbollah — and if Lebanon argues that it doesn’t have effective control over Hezbollah, from a legal perspective — the two states are not in an armed conflict and the army’s primary role is focused inward, experts say.
“Its role is to protect the state and its people, to protect Lebanese civilians,” said Noha Aboueldahab, an assistant professor of international law at Georgetown University in Qatar. “They need to play a humanitarian role for civilians.”
Euan Ward contributed reporting.
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The Israeli military conducted a wave of airstrikes across Lebanon on Sunday, targeting multiple branches of Al-Qard al-Hasan, a financial organization that functions as a bank and is associated with the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the military’s spokesman, said in a news briefing on Monday that one of the targets that was hit was a vault used by Al-Qard al-Hasan that was underneath a residential building in Beirut, the Lebanese capital. The vault, he said, contained “tens of millions of dollars.”
Israel’s minister of defense, Yoav Gallant, signed an order on Monday adding Al-Qard al-Hassan to a list of groups designated by Israel as terrorist organizations. The designation is part of a wider campaign led by Israel’s defense establishment, targeting the economic resources of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations.
What is Al-Qard al-Hasan?
In addition to its military wing, Hezbollah also functions as a political organization and provides a range of social services inside Lebanon. Al-Qard al-Hasan is registered as a charity in Lebanon.
The organization’s name translates as “benevolent loan,” lending money based on the principles of Islamic finance, which prohibits interest. The loans, usually no more than $5,000, are backed by deposits of gold, jewelry or other valuable goods. It also offers savings accounts and financial transfers, and processes payments.
The de facto bank, which has around 30 branches, is the largest microcredit organization in a country where the traditional banking sector is in shambles. It is not regulated by the central bank and is not part of the international banking system.
Who uses the organization?
Since its founding in the early 1980s, Hezbollah has been a significant force in Lebanon, wielding political power and military strength, as well as providing social support, particularly to the country’s large Shiite population. The bank was set up in 1983 to serve the Shiite community, but it gained more clients in 2019 when the banking system all but collapsed.
The U.S. Treasury Department claims that the bank has been used by Hezbollah as “a cover to manage the terrorist group’s financial activities and gain access to the international financial system.”
The department placed Al-Qard al-Hasan under sanctions in 2007 for operating as Hezbollah’s de facto banking arm. In 2021, in the wake of the Lebanese financial crisis, the sanctions were strengthened, with the department accusing the association of “hoarding hard currency that is desperately needed by the Lebanese economy” and compromising the stability of the Lebanese state.
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Why is Israel targeting Al-Qard al-Hasan?
Shlomit Wagman, the former chair of Israel’s Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prohibition Authority, said Al-Qard al-Hasan has become Hezbollah’s principal financial institution, responsible for safeguarding some $750 million a year in Iranian funding, as well as the proceeds from the organization’s criminal enterprises that are used to finance its attacks on Israel.
In a statement following Sunday’s attacks, Israel’s military said that the banking association “directly funds Hezbollah’s terror activities,” including the purchase of “weapons and payments to operatives in Hezbollah’s military wing.” The strikes, it added, are part of Israel’s efforts to “degrade Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure, its military capabilities and ability to rebuild.”
What is the impact of the strikes?
On Monday, the immediate damage from the strikes remained unclear, with no casualties reported.
Few traditional bank branches would have significant amounts of cash on hand, Ms. Wagman said. But the international sanctions against Al-Qard al-Hasan meant it was more likely that its branches might have kept physical caches of dollars, as well as the gold of its depositors. If these were destroyed in the strikes, Hezbollah’s ability to fund future attacks may be further reduced, Ms. Wagman said.
Still, she said, “We can also assume that Iran, which is the major sponsor of Hezbollah, will very soon refuel those supplies.” She noted that the psychological impact may be more enduring, serving to “further reduce the trust between Hezbollah and the Lebanese people.”
Makram Ouaiss, executive director for the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, a Beirut-based research organization, said that Al-Qard al-Hasan probably knew it would be targeted, and likely would have moved valuables to a safe location. He also noted that most branches of Al-Qard al-Hasan in Beirut occupy the ground floor of mixed commercial and residential buildings. “This probably isn’t going to hurt Hezbollah, but it will hurt lots of Lebanese,” he said.
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What is the economic situation in Lebanon?
In a word, catastrophic. The traditional banking system all but collapsed in 2019, largely because of a combination of bad policy, bad loans and corruption. Account holders with mainstream banks have not been able to access most of their funds for several years.
The World Bank estimates that more than a third of the country is living below the poverty line, based on prewar data. With more than a million Lebanese people displaced and hundreds of buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombing campaign over the past month, the number of people living in poverty is likely to be far worse.
Johnatan Reissand Euan Ward contributed reporting.
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A top U.S. official said on Monday that the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah could only be resolved through fully enforcing an 18-year-old United Nations resolution, which calls for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon and for the Lebanese militant group in effect to be disarmed along the border.
The official, Amos Hochstein, President Biden’s de facto envoy on the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, spoke during a visit to Beirut, his first since the Israeli military launched a sweeping offensive against Hezbollah last month. Israel’s military campaign against the armed group has set off a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, displacing around a fifth of the population, and killing more than 2,400 people over the past year, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
“The situation has escalated out of control,” Mr. Hochstein told reporters in Beirut, the Lebanese capital. He said that the White House aimed to reach “a comprehensive agreement” that would see the full enforcement of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last major war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
That agreement, which called for U.N. peacekeepers and the Lebanese military to be the only armed forces operating in southern Lebanon, is today widely considered a failure.
In the years since, Iranian-backed Hezbollah has only entrenched itself militarily along Israel’s northern border, amassing a vast arsenal of rockets and missiles. Israel, too, has long been accused of violating Lebanon’s sovereignty, even before embarking on a ground invasion this month.
The U.N. resolution “was successful at ending the war in 2006, but we must be honest that no one did anything to implement it. The lack of implementation over those years contributed to the conflict that we are in today,” Mr. Hochstein said after meeting with Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, a key interlocutor between the United States and Hezbollah.
Mr. Hochstein also met on Monday with the caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, and the commander of the Lebanese armed forces.
His visit was part of a renewed flurry of U.S. diplomatic efforts in the Middle East coming this week. It follows Israel’s killing of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hezbollah’s ally Hamas, whose death the Biden administration hopes will pave the way for a cease-fire in Gaza. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was scheduled to depart later on Monday for another trip to the Middle East, which will include a stop in Israel, the State Department said.
Hopes for calm, however, appear premature. Israeli forces have continued a deadly offensive against Hamas in northern Gaza, and heavy Israeli airstrikes overnight targeted Hezbollah’s financial apparatus just hours before Mr. Hochstein’s meetings.
Even as the U.S. envoy spoke to reporters, Hezbollah continued to fire rockets toward northern Israel, following pledges by the group to intensify its attacks against Israel in the wake of Mr. Sinwar’s death.
“This is a really heartbreaking moment for me to be here in Lebanon,” Mr. Hochstein said, adding: “While we spent 11 months containing the conflict, we were not able to resolve it.”
Mr. Hochstein said on Monday that the United States would aid in Lebanon’s efforts to rebuild from Israeli attacks, but only if the U.N. resolution was fully administered to reduce the chances of conflict breaking out again.
“The world will stand by Lebanon and its leaders if they make the brave and the hard choices that are required at this time,” he said. The comments appeared to be a call for the Lebanese government to push for Hezbollah’s disarmament in southern Lebanon, and for it to deploy more Lebanese troops in its place, as stipulated by the 2006 U.N. resolution.
Hezbollah has pledged repeatedly that only an end to the war in Gaza will bring about peace. Although top Lebanese officials have said the group is on board with reviving the U.N. resolution, its leaders have publicly pledged to escalate their aerial attacks against Israel. And it remains unclear if Hezbollah would agree to withdraw from southern Lebanon — with or without a cease-fire in Gaza.
