The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began attacking institutions associated with financial and economic support for Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror organization that began attacking Israel on October 8, on Sunday evening.
In an announcement, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari warned:
In the past 24 hours, dozens of projectiles have been fired at northern Israel. In the next minutes, we will issue an advance evacuation warning to residents of Beirut and other areas in Lebanon to evacuate locations being used to finance Hezbollah’s terror activities. I emphasize here—anyone located near sites used to fund Hezbollah’s terror activities must move away from these locations immediately.
We will strike several targets in the coming hours and additional targets throughout the night.
In the coming days, we will reveal how Iran funds Hezbollah’s terror activities by using civilian institutions, associations, and NGOs that act as fronts for terrorism.
We will carry out these strikes tonight and provide updates on the results in the next days.
IDF Arabic spokeaman Lt. Col Avichay Adraee posted similar and specific warnings on X (formerly Twitter):
The campaign against financial institutions appears to be a fourth stage of the war. In the first stage, lasting about 11 months, the IDF simply returned fire, or targeted weapons depots and isolated Hezbollah commanders. In the second stage, the IDF attacked the full senior hierarchy of Hezbollah, including in Beirut. In the third stage, which began in late September, the IDF launched a ground operation. In the fourth stage, it is attacking Hezbollah’s money sources.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.