The BBC’s Orla Guerin is taken on a tour of Al Sahel Hospital in Beirut.

The BBC’s Orla Guerin has been taken on a tour of Al Sahel Hospital in Beirut where Israel claims millions of dollars in cash and gold are kept in a hidden Hezbollah bunker underneath.

Doctors denied the allegation and took the BBC through the building, including to the first and second level below ground. They insisted there is nothing underneath.

On Monday night the hospital had to evacuate around 50 staff and 15 patients - none of them critical - when Israel made its claim.

Hospital officials have insisted that Al Sahel has no connection with any organisation, or group, or faction.

  • @[email protected]
    3•10 hours ago

    I don’t think the content of the threat matters for the IDF’s objective. If we’re to be cynical, the half-ass excuse is a geopolitical posturing to show how brazen they can be with their genocide and possibly a way to demoralize the Democrat’s base before an election.

    • @FourPacketsOfPeanuts
      0•7 hours ago

      When they bomb the hospital I’d say you have a point. But until then it seems to me to be a flex to show how completely compromised Hezbollah’s communications are. Israel are daring them to go get the gold out. (I am giving Hezbollah some credit that they can hide gold slightly better than a cursory glance round some offices by a BBC crew would reveal. I also don’t think it’s unreasonable to believe they would actually hide gold in a hospital but YMMV…)

      Obviously if they did move it they would be tracked every inch to their secondary location. It is psyops but - if we’re a little less cynical - I think it’s Israel Vs Hezbollah psyops.

      That to me to make a little more sense as a primary motive. Israel wants to discredit Hezbollah leadership above all else. So what better way to do it than advertise that they’re powerless to go and retrieve part of their treasury?