This weekend’s Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon targeting 34 Hezbollah-affiliated financial institutions have exposed an elaborate banking network that operates in plain sight.

Operating since 1982, Lebanon’s Al-Qard Al-Hassan banks have evolved into a $3.5 billion financial powerhouse that serves as Hezbollah’s primary money-laundering conduit. They serve as “traditional” banks by providing interest-free loans and basic banking services to local Shiite communities while simultaneously funding terrorism on the side.

Intelligence reports indicate the network handles approximately 70% of Hezbollah’s annual $1 billion budget through Iranian transfers, with the remaining 30% derived from global drug trafficking operations spanning from Syrian manufacturing facilities to distribution networks in West Africa and Latin America.

“The critical point from the terrorist organization’s point of view is that the IDF attack is expected to cause panic among the Shia population, whose assets were deposited in Al-Qard Al-Hassan,” Dr. Udi Levy, former chief of Mossad’s Economic Warfare Division, tells Globes. “People can now be expected to demand the withdrawal of their funds, and this may result in severe damage to Hezbollah, which is already in dire straits.”

“Israel must continue targeting the money, and convey clear messages to the Lebanese banks not to cooperate with Hezbollah,” he says. “During my time, I put pressure on the Americans that they must put pressure on the Lebanese banks. Now, bankers who helped Hezbollah are fleeing Lebanon.”

While Hezbollah likely protected its assets by moving them underground before Israel’s airstrikes, the exposure threatens not just Hezbollah’s fiscal operations but also its carefully cultivated image as a legitimate political and social force in Lebanon.

On Monday, IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari revealed that a bunker worth half a billion dollars belonging to Hezbollah’s deceased leader Hassan Nasrallah had been found underneath the Al-Sahel Hospital in Dahieh, Beirut.

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