Aletho News

Media tour of Beirut hospital disproves Israeli claim of ‘Hezbollah bunker’

The Cradle | October 22, 2024

Journalists toured the Sahel Hospital in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut’s southern suburbs on 22 October, disproving claims made by the Israeli military that Hezbollah was storing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in a bunker below the hospital.

Independent journalist Steve Sweeney was among those visiting the hospital. He wrote on social media that he “had unrestricted access to all areas, including the basement, and all I found were the normal things found in any hospital, in any country across the world.”

“The hospital director believes it will be bombed by Israel, repeating a pattern seen in Gaza, with attempts to link the hospital to Hezbollah a smokescreen to justify an attack. We had to leave the hospital with drones flying overhead with the potential for Israel to strike at any moment,” he added.

L’Orient Today reported that the hospital was evacuated on Monday evening after the Israeli army said it was conducting “a reconnaissance of the complex” beneath which it said “hundreds of millions of dollars” belonging to Hezbollah were hidden.

Hezbollah has “hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold under the Sahel Hospital in Haret Hreik to fund its terrorist activities,” Israeli army Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on social media.

“The Israeli allegations about the Sahel hospital are false, but we were forced to evacuate,” said the director of the health facility, Fadi Alameh, in an interview with Al Jadeed TV.

He also said that “the Sahel Hospital has nothing to do with the parties” and called on the army command to inspect it and confirm that no tunnels were under the building.

Later on Tuesday afternoon, an Israeli airstrike completely destroyed a high-rise building in the Ghobeiry region in the Beirut southern suburbs as Hezbollah’s Media Relations Officer, Mohammad Afif, was giving a press conference in the area, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.

At the press conference, Afif discussed Israel’s bombing on Sunday of multiple offices of the Al-Qard al-Hassan Association, which provides financial services to Lebanese civilians.

Afif said the bombing had “no justification at all. It is a licensed civil institution, and Hezbollah does not receive its allocations from this institution.”

“Al-Qard al-Hassan Association was prepared for the aggression, took all necessary precautions, and will meet its commitments.”

He also stated that despite recent Israeli bombings and the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, “Hezbollah’s military and logistical support lines have returned to what they were, and the enemy has suffered heavy losses in lives and tanks.”

“The resistance and the chain of command are in good health,” he added.

Late Monday, Israel also bombed residential buildings in the Jnah area of Beirut near the Rafic Harir Hospital, killing 13, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

October 22, 2024 - Posted by aletho | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon, Zionism