A NEW investigation appears to have refuted Israeli claims that a hospital in Lebanon sits above a hidden Hezbollah bunker containing millions of dollars in cash and gold.
On Monday night, the Al Sahel Hospital in Beirut was forced to evacuate following the Israeli claim.
Around 50 staff and 15 patients had to evacuate and it is understood that none of those being treated were in a critical condition.
BBC fully inspects Al Sahel Hospital in Beirut that Israel says sits above a hidden bunker filled with Hezbollah gold & millions of dollars Finds absolutely nothing pic.twitter.com/9spZetu7vr
— NighSide (@NighSide) October 22, 2024
In footage released by the BBC, reporter Orla Guerin was given a tour of the building in which she said staff opened up the hospital, including where medical waste is stored and the morgue, in which it was shown “there was nothing inside”.
The reporter said doctors were “very, very keen” to show reporters everything “to prove that there is nothing here”.
She further added that while doctors had brought them around the hospital, journalists were also allowed to move freely to see the whole hospital.
In a televised statement, the Israeli military’s chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said Hezbollah’s former leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israel last month, had built the bunker.
Hagari said: “There are hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold inside the bunker right now.
“I’m calling on the Lebanese government, Lebanese authorities and the international organisations – don’t allow Hezbollah to use the money for terror and to attack Israel.
“The Israeli Air Force is monitoring the compound, as you can see. However, we will not strike the hospital itself.”
Following the video, the IDF's international spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said on Twitter/X: "To all the journalists in Beirut, including those who participated in the press tour in the Al-Sahel Hospital, these are the entry instructions to Nasrallah’s bunker we exposed yesterday:
"According to intelligence information, one of the entrances to the bunker, containing more than half a billion dollars in gold and dollars, is on the eastern side of the basement of the Al-Ahmedi building, located south of the Al-Sahel hospital.
"The basement is on the second floor down (level -2).
"It is important to note that it is possible the entrance is hidden by various means in order to make it difficult to find.
"We invite you to this site in which Hezbollah is holding money that was taken from the Lebanese people."
To all the journalists in Beirut, including those who participated in the press tour in the Al-Sahel Hospital, these are the entry instructions to Nasrallah’s bunker we exposed yesterday: According to intelligence information, one of the entrances to the bunker, containing more…
— LTC Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) October 22, 2024
Elsewhere, the Israeli military has said that one of its airstrikes outside Beirut earlier this month killed a top Hezbollah official who had been widely expected to be the group’s next leader.
There was no immediate confirmation from the militant group about the fate of Hashem Safieddine.
Safieddine, a powerful cleric within the party ranks, was expected to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September.
Israel said Safieddine was killed by an airstrike in early October in a southern suburb of Beirut. Around 25 other Hezbollah leaders were killed during the strike, Israel said.
Israeli strikes in recent months have killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership, leaving the group in disarray.
The Beirut suburb where Safieddine was killed was pummelled by a series of fresh airstrikes on Tuesday. The Israeli military levelled a building in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut that it said housed Hezbollah facilities.
The collapse sent smoke and debris flying into the air a few hundred meters from where a spokesperson for the militant group had just briefed journalists about a weekend drone attack that damaged the Israeli prime minister’s house.
The airstrike came 40 minutes after Israel issued an evacuation warning for two buildings in the area that it said were used by Hezbollah.
The Hezbollah press conference nearby was cut short and an Associated Press photographer captured an image of a missile heading towards the building moments before it was destroyed. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Netanyahu on Tuesday as part of his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of Israel's bombardment of Gaza.
After Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week, Blinken is trying to revive efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza. So far, both Israel and Hamas appear to be digging in.
Blinken stressed the need for Israel to do more to help increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Palestinians and said Israel should “capitalise” on Sinwar’s death as an opportunity to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of hostages there.
Netanyahu’s (above) office called his meeting with Blinken, which lasted more than two hours, “friendly and productive”.
Blinken landed hours after Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel, setting off air raid sirens in populated areas and at its international airport, but causing no apparent damage or injuries.
During his meeting with Netanyahu, Blinken underscored the need for a dramatic increase in the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza, according to US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
The need for more aid in Gaza is something Blinken and US defence secretary Lloyd Austin made clear in a letter to Israeli officials last week.
Miller said Blinken also stressed the importance of ending the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated earlier this month when Israel launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
The State Department said ahead of Blinken’s (above) visit that he would focus on ending the war in Gaza, securing the release of hostages held by Hamas and alleviating the suffering of Palestinian civilians.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have brokered months of talks between Israel and Hamas, trying to strike a deal in which the militants would release dozens of hostages in return for an end to the war, a lasting ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
But both Israel and Hamas accused each other of making new and unacceptable demands over the summer, and the talks ground to a halt in August.
Hamas says its demands haven’t changed following the killing of Sinwar.
