How does Hezbollah finance its terrorism?

Arab media reported several strikes in downtown Beirut on Sunday after IDF spokesman R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari's announcement on Sunday that the IDF would begin physically attacking Hezbollah's financial infrastructure by directly attacking financial buildings in Lebanon,

The IDF said it would launch airstrikes against Hezbollah's financial infrastructure, which includes numerous money laundering schemes involving everything from providing loans to charities to gold mines.

The Al-Qard Al-Hasan (AQAH) Association is Hezbollah's main financial institution, according to Uzi Shaya, a former agent with Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency, quoted in Globes. AQAH purportedly operates as a nonprofit Islamic banking organization, providing many Lebanese with loans for everything from daily necessities to marriage to college tuition and housing.

The Hezbollah-run Lebanese news agency Al Manar reported Sunday after the IDF announcement that AQAH had gone bankrupt and that the IDF had deliberately targeted the association to disrupt the lives of the Lebanese population.

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) describes the organization as specializing “in quasi-banking activities, consisting primarily of the provision of credit and the management of charitable community funds in accordance with Islamic religious law (which includes the collection of interest is prohibited).”

Last month, a Lebanese flag flew at half-mast outside the government palace in Beirut, mourning the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah has drawn Lebanon into a destructive war that many in Lebanon see as a war without any justification or logic, says the author. (Source: MOHAMED AZAKIR/REUTERS)

Part of the goal is to provide Lebanese Shiites with strong economic investments to keep them engaged in the conflict and willing to cooperate. According to Globes, the association also provides loans to the Palestinian community.

The association says most of its funding comes from lenders, membership fees and donations.

The ITIC said it had no way of verifying whether other funds were being sent by external actors such as Iran, and its analysis showed that this was indeed likely.

Ineffective sanctions

The US Treasury Department sanctioned the association in 2016. However, the ITIC stated that the sanctions were largely ineffective and that AQAH's loan volume increased following the sanctions.

It is estimated that AQAH manages billions of dollars in funds across over 400,000 accounts. According to Uzi Shaya, quoted in Globes, she was accused of managing all of Hezbollah's financial activities, including front deals and charities.

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Shaya said AQAH holds all types of financial capital it needs as collateral for loans, including gold and jewelry.

He also said that AQAH was supported by both the Lebanese and Iranian states. “It has also developed an independent self-financing capacity, provided primarily by a number of charities, corporations and a criminal network,” Shaya told Globes.

A majority of the financial transfers were in cash or cryptocurrencies, with significant amounts of money entering through Hezbollah-controlled Beirut Airport.

“This is one of Iran's richest terrorist organizations with an extensive smuggling network in Latin America and bases also in Africa. “Your contacts have agents who move millions of dollars in cash from place to place around the world,” said Dr. Haim Koren told Globes.

Ineffective sanctions

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