ISRAEL HAS HIT a large number of targets in Beirut and the surrounding areas, in airstrikes that it said were targeted at a Lebanese association with financial links to Hezbollah.

Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a Lebanese micro-credit agency, has been accused by Israel of  funding “Hezbollah’s terror activities”, including purchasing weapons for the group, and paying its fighters.

Last night, Israel conducted eleven strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs, targeting “dozens of facilities and sites” used by Hezbollah and Al-Qard Al-Hassan, according to the National News Agency (NNA), Lebanon’s state news agency.

Other strikes his Al-Qard Al-Hassan branches in Lebanon’s easter Bekaa Valley and in the country’s south.

The NNA reported a strike near Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport, the main entry-point of humanitarian assistance to the country and a major evacuation hub for those fleeing the conflict.

The agency also accused the Israeli military of destroying buildings n a “wide-scale” in three border villages in southern Lebanon.

“The Israeli occupation army is carrying out a large-scale bombing operation in buildings in the towns” of Adaisseh, Markaba and Rab El Thalathine, the National News Agency reported after Israel’s Defence Minister said his country was “destroying” Hezbollah in south Lebanon.

They mark an expansion in Israel’s one month-old war with Hezbollah, as it seeks to degrade the group’s ability to fund its operations.

Al-Qard Al-Hassan, which offers micro-credit in a country where the traditional banking system collapsed five years ago at the start of an economic crisis, is sanctioned by the United States, which accuses it of masking Hezbollah’s financial activities, and allowing the group access to the international financial system.

According to the Israeli military, dozens of projectiles were launched across its border with Lebanon on Monday morning.

Yesterday, an Israeli bulldozer “deliberately demolished” an observation tower belonging to UNIFIL, in the latest attack on the peacekeeping mission.

The IDF has repeatedly called for UNIFIL to vacate its positions in southern Lebanon, which the mission has refused to do.

Elsewhere, Israel apologised for the killing of three Lebanese soldiers in southern Lebanon on Sunday.

It claimed that its soldiers believed that they were targeting a vehicle belonging to Hezbollah.

Last week, Israel announced that they had killed Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. Following his death, there was hope from Israel’s allies in the US and Europe that a ceasefire between Israel and its opponents in Palestine and Lebanon would now be possible.

However, Israel’s Prime Minister, Bejamin Netanyahu, as well as Hamas, have said signalled that they do not intend to seek a ceasefire.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops Sunday that the military was stepping up strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, destroying places the group “planned to use as launchpads for attacks against Israel”.

With reporting from the Press Association.