Finance & economics | Economic war

Hizbullah’s sprawling financial empire looks newly vulnerable

Why Israel is now bombing Lebanese banks

Members of Hizbullah parade in the streets in Lebanon
Photograph: Getty Images
|Istanbul

Residents of Beirut are, by now, used to warnings from the Israel Defence Forces ahead of bombing runs. Typically, these instruct locals to stay away from a tower block suspected of harbouring fighters, or perhaps a school said to double as a weapons cache. The warning on October 20th was a little different. It told people to steer clear of branches of al-Qard al-Hassan (AQAH), a bank.

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Bombing banks”

From the October 26th 2024 edition

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