Hezbollah hides millions in cash, gold under Beirut hospital, says Israel

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Hezbollah has stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in a bunker built under a hospital in Beirut, Israel's military said on Monday, adding it will not strike the facility as it keeps up attacks against the group's financial assets.

Fadi Alameh, a Lebanese lawmaker with the Shi'ite Amal Movement party and the director of the hospital in question, Al-Sahel, told Reuters that Israel was making false and slanderous claims and called on the Lebanese Army to visit and show it only had operating rooms, patients and a morgue.

Alameh said the hospital was being evacuated. Israel's military said it was not going to strike the facility.

Reuters could not independently verify the details provided by the Israeli military's chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, which he said had been collected by Israeli intelligence for years.

Hezbollah could not immediately be reached for comment.

In a televised statement, Hagari said Hezbollah's former leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whom Israel killed last month, had built the bunker which was designed for lengthy stays.

"There are hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold inside the bunker right now. I'm calling on the Lebanese government, Lebanese authorities, and the international organizations - don't allow Hezbollah to use the money for terror and to attack Israel," Hagari said.

"The Israeli Air Force is monitoring the compound, as you can see. However, we will not strike the hospital itself," Hagari said.

Israeli Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi told troops in Lebanon that overnight between Sunday and Monday, aircraft had struck around 30 sites belonging to Al-Qard al-Hassan, which Israel says is Hezbollah's financial arm.

Hagari said more strikes against Hezbollah financial sites were to continue.

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Laila Bassam in Beirut; Editing by Sandra Maler)