In its constant attempts to legalize its strikes on Lebanon, Israel has been spreading several claims about Hezbollah's arsenal in the southern parts of Lebanon and other parts.
Recently, after nights of launching deadly strikes in Lebanon, Israel claimed that Al-Sahel Hospital in Beirut has a massive bunker under it used by Hezbollah.
Israel claimed that Hezbollah constructed a massive bunker under Beirut Hospital where the group is currently hoarding cash.
The spokesperson for the IOF, Daniel Hagari, claimed in a video uploaded a day after the bombing of Al-Qard Al-Hassan Bank, that Al-Sahel Hospital in Beirut contains Hassan Nasrallah’s bunker with hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold inside the bunker.
Hagari used 3D graphics to show that there are millions of dollars beneath Al-Sahel Hospital.
According to Hagari, the Israeli Air Force is monitoring the compound. Hagari concluded his statement by claiming that the Israeli military will not strike the hospital itself, adding that Israel is not at war with the people of Lebanon but with Hezbollah.
Hagari’s claims were widely shared by prominent Israeli accounts.
Israel War Room claimed through X that massive bunkers exist under Beirut Hospital where cash is hoarded.
Avichae Adraee the Arabic spokesperson of the IOF also shared the same claims through his social media accounts.
No Bunkers Of Money Could Be Found Anywhere Under Al-Sahel Hospital
After Hagari’s statement, Al-Sahel Hospital invited the journalists to take a tour of the hospital inspecting the stories underneath.
Mazen Alama, the director of Al-Sahel Hospital, invited reporters to go inspect whatever they wished on the underground floors of the hospital, emphasizing that the hospital is only used for treating patients.
Misbar analyzed the rooms of the underground floors of the hospital provided by several reporters and media outlets such as Al Jadeed, Al Jazeera, LBCI Lebanon, and BBC.
On the first floor underground, an electric room could be found where it is evident to the viewer that the room indeed has electrical lines hanging in the roof in addition to electric devices.
On the first floor underground, the first room is a recovery room found at any normal hospital.
Medical equipment could be found in the recovery room, such as drugs and gauze rolls.
The recovery room has an adjacent storage where medical equipment is stored for quick use.
Misbar spotted medical equipment in the storage, like oxygen tubes and splints.
The first level underground also has a sterile store, where only sterilization equipment is stored. Misbar analyzed several scenes from the store and found that the equipment is entirely medical and that there is no evidence of money among them.
The second floor underground was inspected by Al Jazeera and BBC. The administration of the hospital left the journalists to tour by themselves leaving all the doors open.
The second underground floor consists of the morgue and the generators’ room.
Only mortuary beds and cabinets could be found in the section of the morgue.
The other part of the second underground floor consists of the generators’ room where electric lines and water pipes can be found as well as an area where medical waste is stored.
After inspecting and analyzing the two underground floors of Al-Sahel Hospital, Misbar’s team concluded that the Israeli allegations are fake. There is no sign of the alleged cash and gold anywhere in the hospital; only medical equipment could be found.
Evidence On The Ground Discredits Hagari’s Claim
After stating his claims about Hezbollah’s bunkers under Al-Sahel Hospital, Hagari added that Israel only targets Hezbollah and its members and is not at war with the people of Lebanon.
However, evidence on the ground shows that Israel does not care about the people of Lebanon.
When the director of Al-Sahel Hospital was asked why the hospital evacuated the patients, he said that they are used to Israeli behaviors in killing and targeting civilians.
Fearing Israel's usual practices of harming civilians, Youssef Bakhash, the head of the Lebanese Doctors Syndicate, expressed his fear of targeting Al-Sahel Hospital, despite Hagari and Adraee's denial of this.
Since the beginning of the Israeli assaults in Lebanon after October 7, Israel killed more than 2550 Lebanese.
Claiming that these civilian casualties were collateral damage contradicts the investigative reports coming from Israel. In November 2023, an Israeli investigative journalist published an investigation about the use of artificial intelligence by Israel when bombing Gaza. The investigation revealed that Israel uses automated systems like Habsora which can calculate potential casualties.
Five Israeli officials confirmed that the number of civilians who may be killed in attacks is known in advance to Israeli intelligence and appears under the category of “collateral damage.”
The Israeli methodology in treating the civilians of Lebanon is similar to the way Israel treats the civilians in Gaza. In the orders of evacuation to Lebanon, Israel issued the orders at short notice and started to strike the threatened area immediately, the same way it operates in the Gaza Strip.
As the orders of evacuation in the Gaza Strip are regarded by many international bodies as forced displacement orders to civilians, the same applies to Lebanon.
Amnesty International released an article on October 10 describing the orders of evacuation to Lebanese as torture, not warnings. In its analysis, Amnesty International concluded that the Israeli warnings include misleading maps and are issued at short notice - in one instance less than 30 minutes before strikes began, in the middle of the night when most people would be asleep or offline not following media reports.
The Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon are another stark mark that Israel does not care about minimizing the civilian casualties and is not at war with Hezbollah alone.
Thousands of air strikes have been launched on Lebanon over the past four weeks. Civilians were killed and many houses were bombed.
On October 24, BBC reported the killing of 19 Lebanese civilians after an Israeli strike bombed a three-story family’s home.
Moreover, in an attempt to legalize its attacks in Lebanon, Israel is following a strategy of claiming that every institution it targets contributes to Hezbollah.
However, targeting financial and economic institutions cannot be justified per international law even if indirectly linked to Hezbollah.
According to OHCHR, the Israeli targeting of the financial institutions in Lebanon, such as Al-Qard Al-Hassan Bank, does not offer a definite military advantage, and thus can not be justified.
Bombing banks obliterates the distinction between civilian objects and military objectives, said Ben Saul, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.
Gaza Hospitals Faced Similar Allegations
Israel has a history of alleging that hospitals are connected to military activities without providing proper proof.
In November 2023, Israel stormed the largest and the main hospital in the Gaza Strip, Al-Shifa Hospital, claiming that it was connected to Hamas tunnels and was used as a command and control center by Hamas.
After the storming of Al-Shifa Hospital, the IOF released a series of photographs and videos as evidence.
The Washington Post investigated the videos and the photographs provided by Israel and found that they do not show that Hamas had been using the hospital as a command and control center.
The Post’s investigation concluded that the rooms connected to the tunnel network discovered by the IOF did not show immediate evidence of military use by Hamas, the five buildings of the hospital are not connected to the tunnel network, and there was no evidence that the tunnels could be accessed from inside hospital wards.
The Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Hospital in Gaza also faced the same allegations. The Israeli military claimed that the hospital had a Hamas tunnel under it and the entrance could be found in the courtyard right next to an exterior wall.
Sanad, Al Jazeera’s digital investigation agency, investigated the claim and concluded that the alleged tunnel was a mere water well.
Al-Rantisi hospital for children was also claimed to have a Hamas tunnel under it. Alaraby TV’s investigation revealed that the alleged tunnel is no more than an elevator slot.
The allegations Israel spread regarding the hospitals in Gaza and Lebanon prove that targeting the medical buildings is now a policy for Israel to tell the Palestinians and Lebanese that Israel’s strikes and soldiers can reach them wherever they are.
Read More:
Gaza Bakeries Struggle: Unmasking Israeli Misinformation Amid Dire Humanitarian Catastrophe
Navigating the Misinformation Minefield: Media Bias of Reporting on the war on Gaza
