Lebanon media says Israeli strikes hit Hezbollah-linked finance group

Lebanese state media reported Israeli strikes Sunday on branches of a Hezbollah-linked financial association, including near the country's only airport, after the Israeli military warned it would attack Al-Qard Al-Hassan's branches.

The strikes mark an expansion of the Israeli campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah after a year of cross-border exchanges that escalated in late September into a full-blown war.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported 11 strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, many of them targeting Al-Qard Al-Hassan, which Israel says is financing Hezbollah's operations against Israel.

It said a strike landed near Beirut's airport, the main entry-point of humanitarian assistance to the country and a major evacuation hub for those fleeing the conflict.

Commercial planes were still seen flying past clouds of smoke over the embattled southern suburbs, said an AFP correspondent, who watched them land at Beirut's airport, located near targeted areas.

AFP footage showed a column of smoke rising near one of the airports runways, as well as over nearby areas in Beirut's southern suburbs, hit hard by the nearly month-long war.

In the suburb of Chiyah, the strikes flattened an entire building, AFP footage showed. Excavator’s worked to clear the rubble, as rescuers scoured for survivors.

The building housed a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, according to an AFP correspondent.

NNA also reported strikes targeting the association in Hermel, Riyaq and Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley region in Lebanon's east.

The strike on Baalbek hit a commercial market housing a building formerly used by Al-Qard Al-Hassan, NNA said. An AFP correspondent said residents quickly evacuated the area after the Israeli army issued a warning.

In south Lebanon, Israeli strikes hit branches near the cities of Sidon and Nabatieh, according to NNA.

- Panic, evacuations -

The strikes came after the Israeli army said it would attack the association's branches in Beirut, the Bekaa and southern Lebanon, issuing evacuation warnings for more than a dozen buildings in the capital Beirut alone.

An AFP correspondent in Lebanon's coastal city of Sidon said the Israeli announcement triggered panic among displaced people sheltering near a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan.

Many rushed out of the school-turned-shelter, heading on foot towards the seafront or other areas of the city, the correspondent said.

Sidon's mayor ordered the evacuation of the city's municipality and two shelters housing the displaced, according to NNA.

Rescuers and paramedics, including firefighting teams, were instructed to "be on alert in anticipation of any emergency", NNA quoted him as saying.

"We will remain prepared to face all possibilities, and we ask God to protect our city and Lebanon."

The US-sanctioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan is a financial association the US Treasury says has been used by Hezbollah as a cover to mask financial activities and to gain access to the international financial system.

A senior Israeli intelligence official described the firm as an integral component to Hezbollah's financial network that helps fund its operations.