MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Israeli forces carried out a series of airstrikes across Lebanon late Sunday night. They targeted branches of a bank operated by Hezbollah. Israel's military says the bank is involved in financing the group's activities.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
So how does this fit in with the rest of Israel's military campaign? NPR's Arezou Rezvani is on the line from Beirut. Hey there, Arezou.
AREZOU REZVANI, BYLINE: Hi.
INSKEEP: OK. So what exactly is this institution, and how's it work?
REZVANI: So Al-Qard al-Hassan is not a traditional bank. Experts have described it to me as more of a credit union - one that's been under sanctions since 2007 because the U.S. says it has links to Hezbollah. And how it works is people will bring in gold, often in the form of jewelry, and take out a loan against it. No one earns interest, in accordance with Islamic law. Lebanese economists say this lending is pretty safe because loans are guaranteed against something concrete that retains its value well. And because Lebanon has been mired in a severe economic crisis for several years now, a few hundred thousand people have come to rely on Qard al-Hassan as a safer alternative for banking.
INSKEEP: OK. So I'm picturing these storefronts or branches there in cities and towns across Lebanon, and they begin blowing up as the Israeli strikes come Sunday night. Is the network destroyed?
REZVANI: So Lebanese authorities are still assessing the extent of the damage to this banking network, but the bank has released a statement saying it had taken measures to safeguard deposits. It had anticipated eventually becoming a target. There are some 30 branches across Lebanon, and many are in the south - areas that have been getting pummeled by Israel. Getting to those areas has been extremely difficult, very dangerous. We counted more than 10 strikes last night in a southern suburb of Beirut, Dahieh, which is a Hezbollah stronghold. The state has really restricted access, so it's hard to know at this point if these branches are totally gone and if there's been civilians killed or hurt in the process. The Israeli military did issue evacuation orders, but, you know, sometimes it's only minutes before a strike.
INSKEEP: How vulnerable was Hezbollah on this point? In other words, how much damage could these strikes have done?
REZVANI: Well, even if they hit all of these branches, experts don't think that wiping out this bank will significantly debilitate Hezbollah's cash assets, and that's because it wasn't really generating much of a revenue through it. It was more of a vehicle for moving money around to pay its operatives, for example. I talked to Randa Slim, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, and here's how she explains it.
RANDA SLIM: The millions of dollars that are needed to fund Hezbollah's military operations come from Iran, come from business streams like their involvement in the sale of Captagon - that is a drug that's produced in Syria - as well as it comes from donations from Shia communities that are wealthy and work in Africa. And so Hezbollah has been diversifying its revenue stream for a long time.
REZVANI: Slim and others think that it's really civilians who stand to lose the most after the attack of this banking institution.
INSKEEP: So how, then, does this fit in with Israel's larger plans?
REZVANI: Well, this is part of the escalation in this war. The war is intensifying, and targets on both sides are expanding. Beyond that, experts think an attack like this could sow divisions and turn some of Hezbollah's constituents against the group, which is all part of this bigger effort to dismantle the organization.
INSKEEP: NPR's Arezou Rezvani in Beirut. Thanks so much.
REZVANI: You're welcome.
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