The hospital’s director insists the facility has not been used by Hezbollah, and that the only subterranean areas there are underground operating theatres.
Israel’s military claims to have found a bunker full of “cash and gold” belonging to former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah under a hospital in southern Beirut.
Without providing evidence, spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli agents had discovered the bunker under the Sahel General Hospital in Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighbourhood, a Hezbollah stronghold.
Hospital director Fadi Alameh denied there are tunnels under the hospital and said the facility is now being evacuated.
Alameh, who also represents the area around the hospital in the Lebanese parliament, called on the Lebanese army and other institutions to visit the area and inspect whether the underground spaces in fact exist.
Alameh told local TV station Al-Jadeed that Sahed General is a private medical centre that features underground operating theatres. He said the hospital has been in the area for 42 years and insisted it is not linked to any political group.
Meanwhile, Hagari also accused Iran of sending “suitcases of cash and gold” to the Iranian embassy in Beirut, saying the money goes “directly to Hezbollah”.
He added that Israeli strikes had killed the main Hezbollah leaders responsible for transferring money between Iran and Hezbollah.
IDF strikes have hit several branches of a financial institution linked to Hezbollah, Al-Qard Al-Hasan, and Israel said on Monday it plans to carry out more strikes against the financial institution, which it says uses customers’ deposits to finance attacks against Israel.
One strike flattened a nine-story building in Beirut with a branch inside it. The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes, and there were no reports of casualties.
Hagari said Israeli forces will not attack the Sahel General Hospital. However, Lebanon’s Health Ministry say an Israeli airstrike near Beirut’s Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the largest public hospital in Lebanon, killed four people on Monday, leaving 24 wounded.
It was the first strike on the Lebanese capital in 10 days.
The strikes came as Israel steps up its strikes in Lebanon and troops push ahead in their invasion of the country’s south.
The IDF said five projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel and that most were intercepted by Israel’s missile defence system, while one landed in an open area.
According to the military, about 15 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel at around the same time.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel Tuesday on his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
Blinken is set to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, according to Israeli officials.
He will raise the importance of a diplomatic resolution to the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon as well as the Gaza war. He will also look to revive ceasefire efforts in Gaza after the killing of top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
“Secretary Blinken will discuss the importance of bringing the war in Gaza to an end, securing the release of all hostages, and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Blinken also intends to engage in post-conflict planning and emphasise “the need to chart a new path forward that enables Palestinians to rebuild their lives”, Miller added.
He said Blinken also would underscore the need for a dramatic increase in the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza, something that Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin made clear in a letter to Israeli officials last week.
That letter reminded Israel that the Biden administration could be forced by US law to curtail some forms of military aid should the delivery of humanitarian assistance continue to be hindered.
