Hezbollah Cuts Services as Israel, US Squeeze $700 Million Iran Funding
Updated
Updated · Ynetnews · Aug 10
Hezbollah Cuts Services as Israel, US Squeeze $700 Million Iran Funding
3 articles · Updated · Ynetnews · Aug 10
Summary
Hezbollah is under its heaviest financial strain in years, with compensation for destroyed homes halted and some medical and social support already cut even as fighter salaries mostly continue.
Israel and the United States widened the pressure beyond battlefield strikes by hitting Al-Qard Al-Hassan branches, targeting money changers and pushing Lebanon to block funding routes from Iran.
Lebanon suspended flights from Iran, tightened airport and central-bank oversight, and investigated financial transfer firms after officials said Beirut had been used to move cash and weapons.
Iran had sent Hezbollah about $700 million a year before the war, but officials say rising war, reconstruction and displacement costs have outgrown that support despite increased aid and roughly $1 billion moved through hawala last year.
Hezbollah is adapting through money changers, routes via the UAE, Turkey and Iraq, and expanded gold trading, leaving Washington and Jerusalem unable to show they have broken the group’s financial system.