The blow delivered against Hezbollah by the Israel Defense Forces is becoming clearer as the Lebanese terror group struggles to maintain financial commitments to its followers, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Iranian proxy wielded unrivaled military and political power in Lebanon prior to the Israeli offensive, which came in retaliation for months of missile bombardment on Israel’s north.
Hezbollah operates like a shadow state in Lebanon, offering jobs, banking and social services to its adherents. It also paid relatives of Hezbollah fighters who lost their lives and those who lost their homes or businesses.
“But the spiraling bill from its latest war is making many of those payments impossible,” the Journal said.
Sources told the Journal that Hezbollah’s primary financial institution, Al-Qard Al-Hassan, froze payments in recent weeks for compensation checks already issued.
Fadwa Hallal of the southern Lebanese town of Habboush said she had received a $7,000 compensation check for damage to her home on Jan. 28. She was then told by Al-Qard Al-Hassan that it couldn’t pay. She cashed her check after about a month but said others had faced longer delays, the Journal reported.
Other said they had never received support. “I have so many questions about why we were dragged into this conflict, the suffering we endured and who will compensate for our losses,” said Jalal Nassar, a restaurant owner in the Lebanese coastal city Tyre.
He had to pay $100,000 to repair his restaurant, which was destroyed by airstrikes, the Journal said. A Hezbollah-linked construction-and-engineering arm visited but declined to offer assistance.
Hezbollah’s financial straits have deteriorated due to the Lebanese government’s efforts to block cash from reaching it from Iran. The Syrian regime’s fall also cut off a route for weapons and cash from the Islamic Republic.
“Hezbollah no longer has the cash to compensate its constituents,” Lina Khatib, an associate fellow at think tank Chatham House, told the Journal.
She said loyalty to the group “is likely to wane in the long term when Hezbollah’s constituents realize that it can no longer offer them financial, political, or security benefits.”
Hezbollah has sent out $630 million in payments for loss or damage to their homes, according an Al-Qard Al-Hassan official.
Moussa Chmaysani, a car dealer and head of the Merchant Association in Lebanon’s Nabatieh province, said Hezbollah was prioritizing payments to those in need of shelter.
“I received $12,800 in emergency shelter assistance,” he said. “But I lost nearly $100,000 worth of inventory and have not received a single dime in compensation.”
Hezbollah is also coping with spiraling medical payments for its wounded. A person familiar with Hezbollah told the Journal that the group lost 5,000 with more than 1,000 severely wounded.
“The party has suffered heavy losses,” he said. “The group has been weakened, but it is not defeated.”
On Feb. 20 L’Orient Today reported that Israel’s attacks will cost Lebanon $14 billion in reconstruction based on a World Bank estimate.
Hezbollah has called for the government to manage the cost of much of the rebuilding, the Journal reported.