Lebanon seizes $2.5 million bound for Hezbollah, local officials say
Sources say it is the first time such a seizure is made, as cash caught on man arriving from Turkey; Beirut has also halted all flights from Iran over alleged Israeli warnings
Lebanon seized $2.5 million in cash from a man arriving from Turkey on Friday, the finance ministry said, with three sources saying the money was destined for the Hezbollah terror group.
One of the sources said it was the first time such a seizure had been made. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
“The detainee and the seized funds will be handed over to the investigation division at the General Directorate of General Security,” Lebanon’s finance ministry said in a statement, without making a reference to Hezbollah.
The terms of a ceasefire agreed by Israel and Hezbollah in November require the Lebanese army to deploy into south Lebanon as Israeli troops and Hezbollah withdraw forces.
Iran-backed Hezbollah was the most powerful force in Lebanese politics but its influence and resources took a hit during its year-long conflict with Israel.
Its weakened stature has been reflected in Lebanon’s post-war politics, with the group unable to impose its will in the formation of a new government and language legitimizing its arsenal omitted from the new cabinet’s policy statement.
Last month, Israel’s UN ambassador accused Hezbollah of trying “to regain strength and rearm with the assistance of Iran.” A senior Lebanese source close to Hezbollah denied the allegations.
Lebanon halted flights from Iran this month indefinitely after the Israeli military accused Tehran of using civilian aircraft to smuggle cash to Beirut to arm Hezbollah.
The move prompted protests from supporters of Hezbollah. A United Nations convoy was attacked, leaving a vehicle torched and two peacekeepers wounded.
Lebanese security forces said the ban came after the United States, which helped broker a November 27 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, warned that the IDF might shoot the planes down.
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem charged that the government’s decision to halt flights from Iran was “implementing an Israeli order.”
Iran said in turn that it would not allow Lebanese flights to land until its flights were cleared to land in Beirut.
The November 27 agreement between Israel and Hezbollah ended two months of full-scale war that followed months of lower-intensity cross-border exchanges, which the Iran-backed terror group began, unprovoked, one day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza. Hezbollah said its attacks were in support of Hamas in 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 was being used by Hezbollah for money laundering and terrorism financing, assertions the group denies.
On Thursday an IDF drone strike in northern Lebanon’s Hermel District killed a Hezbollah operative involved in procuring weapons for the terror group amid the ongoing ceasefire, the military said.
According to the IDF, Mohammed Mahdi Ali Shaheen was “coordinating terrorist transactions for the purchase of weapons on the Syria-Lebanon border, since the understandings between Israel and Lebanon came into effect.”
Shaheen was described by the IDF as a prominent member of Hezbollah’s regional division in the Beqaa Valley area, involved in smuggling weapons from Syria to Lebanon. As part of his role, Shaheen was responsible for making procurement deals with smugglers and suppliers, mediating the arrival of shipments, and distributing them to various Hezbollah units, the military said.
The IDF said his actions “posed a threat to Israel and its citizens, and constituted a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
On Wednesday, a separate IDF drone strike in northeastern Lebanon killed Mahran Ali Nasser al-Din, a prominent member of Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, which is responsible for smuggling weapons into Lebanon.
The Times of Israel Community.