Jerusalem, 9 March, 2026 (TPS-IL) — The Israel Defense Forces on Monday released a recording of a phone call between an Israeli intelligence officer and a resident of Beirut’s Dahiyeh district, in which the caller expressed anger at Hezbollah and said the group was forcing civilians from their homes.
According to the IDF, the conversation took place as Israeli forces issued evacuation warnings to residents in areas where airstrikes are planned. The warnings are sometimes delivered through phone calls made by intelligence officers from Unit 504, a military unit responsible for gathering human intelligence.
In the recording, the resident tells the officer that Hezbollah’s presence in the area is endangering civilians. “Get rid of Hezbollah already — I’m with you,” the resident says in the call. “They forced us out of our homes.”
The resident also stresses that many Lebanese citizens support the country’s government rather than the Iranian-backed militant group. “The Lebanese people are with the Lebanese state, not with Hezbollah,” the caller says.
The IDF said Hezbollah has deployed extensively throughout Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut considered a stronghold of the Iran-backed terror organization. According to the Israeli Military, some sites there are used to manufacture and develop weapons, including facilities involved in improving the precision of missiles with Iranian guidance.
Hezbollah has spent decades building up weapons stockpiles that include advanced Iranian precision missiles, the IDF said, adding that the group often stores and produces weapons within civilian infrastructure such as residential buildings.
Meanwhile, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Col. Avichay Adraee, reiterated warnings to Residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes on Monday morning.
“In the coming hours, the Israel Defense Forces will operate forcefully against the terrorist infrastructure of Al-Qard al-Hassan Association, which constitutes a central element in financing Hezbollah’s terrorist activities and harms the Lebanese economy in service of Iranian interests,” Adraee tweeted.
The Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association (AQHA), associated with terror funding and money laundering, has been used to funnel money to Hezbollah for years.
In comments to The Press Service of Israel after Israel struck 20 AQHA branches in 2024, a senior figure in the Israeli intelligence community described AQHA as “one of the largest centers of economic power for the Iranian proxy.”
She also suggested that its competition with the Lebanese banking sector contributed to the country’s economic instability, while Hezbollah benefited from a parallel, unregulated financial system.
This network is based on the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, through which Hezbollah deposits and stores funds, manages salary payments, and even makes money transfers from Iran. Established in 1982, AQHA expanded significantly to 34 branches against the backdrop of Lebanon’s economic crisis. It specializes in providing microloans to Lebanon’s Shiite community, which predominantly supports Hezbollah. These loans serve various needs, from wedding expenses to agricultural development and solar energy farms.
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned AQHA in 2007.
The IDF began attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon after the Iran-backed terror group fired three rockets in the direction of Haifa on March 2. It was Hezbollah’s first rocket attack since a November 2024 ceasefire took effect. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the March 2 rocket fire, calling it “revenge for the blood of the Supreme Leader of the Muslims, Ali Khamenei.” Khamenei was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the war.