On Monday, 2 November, Hizbullah announced the beginning of the payment of financial assistance to internally displaced persons in the Nabatiyah region of South Lebanon. The movement reported that it had committed the payment of a first instalment for households deprived of their housing by war with Israel. He presents this distribution as a gesture of loyalty to the owners of destroyed houses.
This first payment reflects the scheme announced on 13 October. Housing assistance can reach $14,000 over a year. Hezbollah provided four instalments over twelve months, without specifying the amount of the first instalment distributed to Nabatiah.
Assistance to internally displaced persons: conditions announced
The program targets people whose housing has been completely destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. It also concerns the inhabitants of the southern areas occupied by Israel. In both cases, beneficiaries must have no other place to live.
The annual ceiling therefore does not correspond to an amount immediately paid to each household. The amount actually allocated and the number of households affected by this first distribution were not detailed in the announcement. Hezbollah also did not indicate the origin of the funds mobilized.
Payments under financial pressure
This assistance to internally displaced persons comes as Iran, the main support of Hezbollah, remains subject to US economic sanctions. The Lebanese authorities also strengthen controls over the channels through which the movement obtains money and weapons as part of their declared disarmament policy.
The announcement of the programme in October was the first of its kind since Hizbullah’s entry into the war in support of Iran on 2 March. The United States and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February. The aid announced concerns the housing needs of internally displaced persons, not a costed programme for the reconstruction of destroyed homes.
According to provisional figures from the Lebanese authorities, more than 290,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed since 2023. This balance sheet covers several war sequences, not just the most recent.
Violence in the South has decreased since June, following a memorandum between Washington and Tehran and a framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel. The latter includes the disarmament of Hezbollah.
A previous arrangement was announced in December 2024, after the war against Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah reported $77 million in aid to internally displaced persons, presented as a gift from the Iranian people and the movement. For the payments committed to Nabatieh, neither the total envelope nor the detailed timetable for the next instalments were specified.
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