Hezbollah has paid out more than US$50 million in cash gifts to families affected by war with Israel, its leader Naim Qassem said on Thursday, as the Iran-backed group seeks to shore up its support base after a devastating conflict with Israel.
The payments of between US$300 and US$400 per person will total more than US$77 million when paid out to all 233,500 families who registered, Qassem said in a recorded speech, thanking Iran for its financing of the effort alongside Hezbollah.
Hezbollah will also provide a lump sum of US$8,000 to those whose primary homes were destroyed in the war, and US$6,000 for a year of rent for those living in Beirut or its suburbs and US$4,000 for those living outside the capital until they can move back home, he said. The payments would be financed mainly by Iran, he said.
Israeli strikes have flattened swathes of Shiite majority areas Hezbollah’s support base call home in Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern and eastern Lebanon.
A ceasefire to the 14-month conflict took effect late last month, though Israel has been accused by United Nations, French and Lebanese officials of violating it dozens of times.
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