Hezbollah announces aid for displaced in Lebanon, despite pressures

The aid announcement was the first from Hezbollah since it drew Lebanon into a new war with Israel on March 2 in support of Iran. (AFP pic) BEIRUT: Hezbollah announced on Tuesday an aid program for Lebanese who lost their homes in the war with Israel, with benefits capped at US$14,000 per household, despite US and Lebanese sanctions on the militant group.

The announcement also comes despite US sanctions on Iran, which backs Hezbollah with weapons and resources, and tighter controls by the Lebanese authorities on Hezbollah's funding and supply routes, after the group emerged weakened from two wars with Israel since 2023.

At a press conference in Beirut's southern suburbs, the head of Hezbollah's Executive Council, Ali Daamouch, announced aid worth US$14,000 per household for residents of Beirut and its southern suburbs, and US$12,000 for other regions.

The assistance will go to displaced people whose homes have been destroyed or made uninhabitable, and to residents of areas in the south occupied by Israel, on the condition that beneficiaries do not have a second home, Daamouch said.

Hezbollah will pay the assistance in four instalments over the course of a year, he added, without specifying the source of the funds or the number of beneficiaries the Shia movement can cover.

The aid announcement was the first from Hezbollah since it drew Lebanon into a new war with Israel on March 2 in support of Iran, which the US and Israel attacked on Feb 28.

In December 2024, after an earlier war against Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza, it announced similar assistance worth US$77 million to the displaced, describing it as a "a gift from the Iranian people and Hezbollah".

The two wars against Israel since 2023 have destroyed or damaged more than 290,000 homes, according to provisional figures from Lebanese authorities, particularly in the south of the country and in Beirut's southern suburbs, strongholds of the Shia movement.

The total cost of the two wars could exceed US$27 billion, prime minister Nawaf Salam said in September, citing World Bank estimates.

He said the state does not have the means to rebuild the southern regions destroyed by the war.

Violence has decreased in the south since June, following a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran and a framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, which includes the disarmament of Hezbollah.