Journalists tour Sahel Hospital where Israel claimed Hezbollah stored cash and gold
An Associated Press team was among journalists taken on a tour inside a hospital in Beirut’s southern suburb where the Israeli army claimed without offering evidence that Hezbollah was storing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in tunnels underneath.
The Sahel General Hospital had already been emptied of most patients and staff following intense bombardment of the area in recent days, and the few remaining ones were hastily evacuated late Monday after the Israeli claim.
“We have been living in terror for the last 24 hours,” hospital director Mazen Alameh said Tuesday. “There is nothing under the hospital.”
Journalists were taken to the two floors under the hospital, the first of which had two rooms for surgeries and the other had oxygen bottles stored inside. The second floor included a morgue with six doors in one room and a giant water tank in another.
Alameh said the hospital has no affiliation with any political group or religious institution and has been working under the supervision of Lebanon’s Health Ministry since its founding.
Israel has made similar claims about tunnels used by Hamas militants under hospitals in Gaza. Omar Mneimne, a doctor at the hospital’s emergency department, said he fears a repeat scenario in Lebanon.
“We fear that,” Mneimne said, adding that the international community should act to defend health facilities in Lebanon. “It’s extremely hard. It’s very stressful for the community.”
The Israeli military had claimed that Hezbollah is storing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold under the hospital.
"According to the estimates we have, there is at least half a billion dollars in dollar bills and gold stored in this bunker," Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.
"This money could and still can be used to rebuild the state of Lebanon," he added.
Israeli army Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee urged the Lebanese government to return the "stolen" money to Lebanon's citizens and not to allow Hezbollah to use it.
