Israeli airstrikes on Al Qard Al Hasan | |
---|---|
Part of 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and Israel-Hezbollah conflict | |
Location | Lebanon |
Date | 20-21 October 2024 |
The Israeli Defense Forces conducted airstrikes on the Al-Qard Al-Hasan Association, a Hezbollah-linked financial institution [1] [2] on the night of October 20-21, 2024. During these airstrikes, the Israeli air force targeted a number of Al-Qard Al-Hassan's sites in Lebanon. [1] [3]
The association provides social services to the Shiite community in Lebanon and is said to be a major source of funding for Hezbollah's activities. These attacks aimed to harm Hezbollah's economic infrastructure, particularly its funding sources. [4] [5] Due to Al-Qard Al-Hasan's links to Hezbollah, the organisation has been subject to sanctions by the United States. According to the US Treasury Department, Al-Qard Al-Hasan says it serves the people of Lebanon but in practice “illicitly moves funds through shell accounts and facilitators”. [1]
Before the airstrikes began, the Israeli army issued specific evacuation warnings to residents living near the targets. [5] Israel gave warnings for more than a dozen buildings in Beirut according to The New Arab . [6] As a result, there were reports of mass movement among displaced individuals fleeing from Beirut and other targeted areas, including the Dahieh, the Beqaa Valley, and southern Lebanon. [6]
Israeli sources indicated that the airstrikes aimed to damage Hezbollah's operational capabilities and funding during the military confrontation, hinder its ability to rebuild after the conflict, and undermine the trust between Hezbollah and the Shiite population in Lebanon. [1] An Israeli source said that Al-Qard Al-Hasan helped fund Hezbollah's operations. [6]
Hassan Nasrallah was a Lebanese cleric and politician who served as the secretary-general of Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political party and militia, from 1992 until his assassination in 2024.
This is a timeline of events related to the 2006 Lebanon War.
Dahieh is a predominantly Shia Muslim suburb in the south of Beirut, in the Baabda District of Lebanon. It has a minority of Sunni Muslims, Christians, and a Palestinian refugee camp with 20,000 inhabitants. It is a residential and commercial area with malls, stores and souks, and comprises several towns and municipalities, including Ghobeiry, Haret Hreik, Bourj el-Barajneh, Ouzai, and Hay El-Saloum. It is north of Rafic Hariri International Airport, and the M51 freeway that links Beirut to the airport passes through it.
Hashem Safieddine was a Lebanese Shia cleric who served as the head of Hezbollah's Executive Council from 2001 until his assassination in 2024. A maternal cousin of Hassan Nasrallah, Safieddine was generally considered the "number two" in Hezbollah before Nasrallah's assassination on 27 September 2024.
The Iran–Israel conflict during the Syrian civil war refers to the Iranian–Israeli standoff in and around Syria during the Syrian conflict. With increasing Iranian involvement in Syria from 2011 onwards, the conflict shifted from a proxy war into a direct confrontation by early 2018.
The 2019 Israeli airstrikes in Iraq began as unidentified drone or aircraft bombings of the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) bases in Iraq starting on 19 July 2019. The strikes targeted Iranian proxy groups, based in Iraq, as well as IRGC operatives.
Events in the year 2023 in Lebanon.
Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have exchanged fire along the Israel–Lebanon border and in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights since 8 October 2023. Israel has also carried out airstrikes against Hezbollah throughout Lebanon and in Syria. The conflict is part of the spillover of the Israel–Hamas war and is the largest escalation of the Hezbollah–Israel conflict since the 2006 Lebanon War.
Events of the year 2024 in Israel.
Events in the year 2024 in Lebanon.
Since the beginning of the Israel–Hezbollah conflict on 8 October 2023, the Israeli Defense Forces has killed six journalists and injured at least 15 others in multiple incidents near the Lebanon–Israel border and in Syria. Lebanese residents have also attacked journalists covering the war from Hezbollah controlled areas which injured multiple and one instance resulted in the death of a Lebanese civilian guide.
On 30 July 2024, Israel conducted an airstrike on an apartment building in Haret Hreik in the suburbs of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, killing Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, Iranian military adviser Milad Bedi, as well as five Lebanese civilians, including two children, and wounding 80 others.
Ibrahim Aqil was a Lebanese militant leader who served as commander-in-chief of Hezbollah's special operations unit, the Redwan Force. He was a member of the Jihad Council, which oversees the military operations of the organisation. Some considered Aqil as the de facto Chief of Staff of Hezbollah.
On 23 September 2024, Israel began a series of airstrikes in Lebanon as part of the ongoing Israel–Hezbollah conflict with an operation it code-named Northern Arrows. Since then, Israel's attacks have killed over 800 people, injured more than 5,000, and displaced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians. The attacks are the deadliest in Lebanon since the end of the Lebanese Civil War, and began five days after Israel performed a deadly pager and walkie-talkie attack on devices intended for Hezbollah members, and three days after Israel performed an airstrike on an apartment complex in Beirut which killed Redwan Force commander Ibrahim Aqil as well as 54 others.
This timeline of the Israel–Hezbollah conflict covers the period from 17 September 2024, when Hezbollah pagers exploded throughout Lebanon and Syria to the present. Beginning 23 September, Israel begun mass airstrikes on Lebanon, on 27 September, they assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, and on 1 October, they invaded Lebanon.
On 27 September 2024, Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. The strike took place while Hezbollah leaders were meeting at a headquarters located 60 feet (18 m) underground beneath residential buildings in Haret Hreik in the Dahieh suburb to the south of Beirut. Conducted by the Israeli Air Force using F-15I fighters, the operation involved dropping more than 80 bombs, including US-made 2,000-pound (910 kg) bunker buster bombs, destroying the underground headquarters as well as nearby buildings. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) codenamed the operation "New Order".
On 1 October 2024, Israel invaded Southern Lebanon in an escalation of the ongoing Israel–Hezbollah conflict, a spillover of the Israel–Hamas war. It followed a series of major attacks on Hezbollah in September that degraded its capabilities and devastated its leadership, beginning with the explosions of its communication devices. This was followed by a massive Israeli aerial bombing campaign throughout Lebanon, killing over 800 Lebanese people in one week. On 27 September, Israel assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike.
Al-Qard Al-Hassan (AQAH) or Al-Qard Al-Hasan Association is a Hezbollah-affiliated non-profit financial institution, that provides interest-free loans and other financial services to the Lebanese Shia community, providing support amidst widespread poverty. It is based on the Islamic principle of interest-free loans of the same name.
On 4 October 2024, the Israel Defense Forces struck a medical center in central Beirut with an airstrike, amid the 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, killing at least nine and injuring more than 14. Seven members of the medical staff were killed, including two medics, according to a civil defence group linked to Hezbollah. Israel allegedly used white phosphorus to attack the medical center.