Hezbollah offers up to $14,000 to displaced Lebanese

Hezbollah announced an aid programme on Tuesday for Lebanese people who lost their homes in war with Israel, offering up to $14,000 per household despite sanctions and tighter controls on the group's finances.

Ali Daamouch, head of Hezbollah's Executive Council, said at a press conference in Beirut's southern suburbs that residents of Beirut and its southern suburbs could receive $14,000 per household. He said residents of other regions could receive $12,000.

Daamouch said the assistance would go to displaced people whose homes were destroyed or made uninhabitable and to residents of areas in southern Lebanon occupied by Israel. He said beneficiaries must not have a second home.

Hezbollah will pay the assistance in four instalments over a year, Daamouch said. He did not specify the source of the money or how many people could receive it.

The announcement came despite US and Lebanese sanctions on Hezbollah, US sanctions on Iran, and tighter Lebanese controls on the group's funding and supply routes. Iran backs Hezbollah with weapons and resources.

Lebanese authorities' provisional figures say two wars with Israel since 2023 have destroyed or damaged more than 290,000 homes, particularly in southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in September that the total cost of the wars could exceed $27 billion, citing World Bank estimates, and said the state did not have the means to rebuild southern regions destroyed by war.

Violence in southern Lebanon has decreased since June, after a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran and a framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel that includes Hezbollah's disarmament.