Behind the wave of intense attacks against the assets of the “Al-Qard Al-Hasan” association, which funds Hezbollah throughout Lebanon, lies a broader story and an economic mechanism by which the terrorist organization tries to survive, recover, and strengthen its grip on Lebanese society.
The “Al-Qard Al-Hasan” association, established in 1981, is presented to the general public in Lebanon as a community institution providing loans and deposit services. In practice, over the years, it has served as the economic backbone of Hezbollah – and a financial mechanism parallel to the country’s official banking system.
Unlike banks we are familiar with, which are subject to regulation and operate under digital transfer systems like SWIFT, the association operates on a ‘cash economy’ system. Citizens deposit dollars or gold – and the organization provides cash loans in return. Since distinct bank transfers are not made, there are no traces, and the lack of oversight turns every citizen’s deposit into part of a ‘black’ cash pool.
According to estimates, the volume of funds managed through the association exceeds three billion dollars, and it serves about 300,000 Lebanese. Hezbollah launders Iranian funds through it, and transfers others back to the country – the central funder of its activities.
In essence, the infrastructure enables a separate economic network that feeds what is sometimes called the ‘Hezbollah state’: a parallel service system including health, education, and civilian aid.
Operatives of the terrorist organization hold accounts in it, through which they receive regular compensation. The entire association holds most of Hezbollah’s funds, including civilian deposits on which the organization relies during combat, which have been and continue to be used for the purchase, financing, and production of weaponry and the continuation of military activity.
Housing stipends and home reconstruction – as a driver of economic dependency
Hezbollah’s recovery process after a conflict is not based solely on military rehabilitation but also on its economic infrastructure. ‘Al-Qard Al-Hasan’ plays a central role in this effort. The association finances the reconstruction of homes destroyed in combat, including those of civilians who stored weapons in their properties. This maintains the operational pattern: outward civilian reconstruction, while preserving a covert military infrastructure.
As early as October 2024, the Air Force conducted strikes against the association’s disguised bank branches, marking it as a target. Since then, the organization has worked to physically repair the assets damaged in those operations. Simultaneously, the terrorist organization, through the bank, resumed payments of temporary housing stipends to those families, thereby strengthening the direct economic link between it and the citizens.
In December 2025, despite international pressure to dismantle the organization, the bank issued an official statement declaring that it continues to operate through all its branches across Lebanon, presenting its activity as a community loan mechanism between donors and borrowers for social needs. However, even behind this new definition, one of the central mechanisms that allows Hezbollah to survive and rebuild its strength continues to emerge.
The attacks on 30 of the association’s branches this week have left them in ruins. But according to information available to the IDF, at this moment, Hezbollah is prioritizing its operatives and channeling remaining cash reserves to them – at the expense of the savings of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese citizens. During the week, thein Arabic called on the residents of Lebanon to demand their money immediately from the branch managers and the association, which abandons the public for foreign interests while the economic infrastructure around it collapses.
The extensive attacks are an operational step as part of a broader concept, aimed at the complete confiscation of Hezbollah’s financial mechanism and its absolute isolation from the global economic system. There is a clear message here to Beirut: as long as an unregulated parallel system is allowed to operate within its territory, the country will bear responsibility for the consequences. Reconstruction cannot occur through terrorist channels, but through the dismantling of the infrastructure that allows the terrorist organization to grow stronger.