IDF says Iran smuggling cash to Hezbollah on civilian planes through Beirut airport
Military has passed information to US-led committee supervising Lebanon ceasefire, assesses some transfers succeeded, vows to ‘use all tools at its disposal’ to enforce agreement
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Iran has been smuggling cash to Hezbollah via Beirut’s international airport in recent weeks, according to the Israel Defense Forces, which has passed the information on to a US-led committee supervising the ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanon-based terror group.
In a post on X on Thursday, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Col. Avichay Adraee, said the cash has been smuggled by the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force to Hezbollah using civilian flights. The money is being used by the Iran-backed terror group to rebuild itself, according to the IDF.
Adraee said that the IDF has been in contact with a US-led committee supervising the November 27 ceasefire and was regularly updating it with “relevant information in order to foil these transfers.”
Despite the efforts, the IDF spokesperson said, some of the money transfers were likely carried out successfully.
“The IDF will not allow the organization to get stronger, and will use all the tools at its disposal to enforce the understandings in the ceasefire agreement, for the security of the citizens of Israel,” Adraee added.
A US defense official cited in a Wall Street Journal report last month said Israel had complained to the US-led committee overseeing the Lebanon ceasefire that Iran was sending suitcases stuffed with US dollars to Hezbollah via Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport.
The January report said Israel’s complaints had been passed on to the Lebanese government, and that security officials in Beirut said the airport was under tight military control to prevent Hezbollah smuggling attempts.
Though smuggling large amounts of cash through the airport would be difficult, valuable items like gemstones and diamonds could pass undetected, a Lebanese official was quoted as saying.
The ceasefire deal ended two months of full-scale war that followed months of lower-intensity cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah, which the Iran-backed terror group began, unprovoked, one day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza. Tens of thousands of Israeli residents of the north were displaced by the attacks, with rocket fire eventually spreading to the center of the country.
Hezbollah said its attacks were in support of Gaza. By the time the ceasefire came into effect, Israel had eliminated most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership. It also targeted the Al-Qard Al-Hassan financial institution, which has over 30 outlets across Lebanon, which both Jerusalem and Washington say is used by Hezbollah for money laundering and terrorism financing, assertions the group denies.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah must pull back north of the Litani River — some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Israel’s border — while Israel is entitled to strike threats it considers imminent and forward less imminent threats to a monitoring committee comprising representatives of Lebanon, Israel, France, the United States and UNIFIL.
Under the truce deal, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in the south alongside UN peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over 60 days.
The withdrawal period for Israeli forces was delayed to February 18 after Jerusalem requested an extension from the original January 26 deadline. It has now requested to push that date off by 10 more days. Israel has said it needs to stay longer because the Lebanese army has not effectively deployed to all areas of southern Lebanon, as agreed.
In addition to pulling back its forces north of the Litani River, Hezbollah is also obligated to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Israel’s military says its forces have continued to uncover and seize Hezbollah weapons in prohibited areas and that the Lebanese army is not keeping to its part of the deal.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
