Iran transferred $200 million in cash to Hezbollah last month despite tightening US sanctions, Reuters reported, citing two people with direct knowledge of the transfer. Hezbollah intends to use the money to pay Lebanese families displaced by this year's war with Israel. It would be the group's first significant aid to its own displaced supporters.
Washington disputed the report. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the money "is not there" and accused Hezbollah of inventing stories of Iranian cash to save face. He said the US would keep choking off Hezbollah's finances through sanctions while backing the Lebanese government's efforts to rebuild the south.
The plan calls for an initial payment of $3,000 per family. Families whose villages were destroyed or are inaccessible because of the Israeli military presence will be paid first, and one of the sources estimated their number at around 50,000.
The displaced belong to the Shi'ite community from which Hezbollah draws its support. They were driven from their homes by fighting in southern Lebanon after Hezbollah entered the regional war in support of Iran on March 2. Until now, they have received little or no help from the group.
Moving the cash came at a steep price. The intermediaries charged a 20% fee, which one source said was four times the normal rate, reflecting the risk of dealing with Hezbollah. The sources did not explain how the money reached Lebanon. One of them said financial firms in Iraq and Dubai that once processed such transfers are no longer available, and that comparable channels in Turkey are now under pressure. The same source said Hezbollah's enemies regard money as the group's "oxygen," yet the organization has kept paying its fighters and the families of members killed in combat.
i24NEWS reported that Hezbollah has had to turn to hawala, an informal brokerage system more than 500 years old that moves large sums outside modern financial channels. It made that shift, the outlet said, after the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, which it described as Hezbollah's bank, was destroyed and sanctioned in 2024 and 2025. In September, i24NEWS also reported that Hezbollah had raised tuition at its schools and offered parents incentives to pay in dollars.
A Hezbollah official confirmed that funds had been secured and said a distribution plan would be announced in the coming days. The official did not say where the money came from. Last month, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said the group would soon contribute to a housing project for thousands of displaced people using "available resources and donations." Tehran has never acknowledged financing Hezbollah.
The US Treasury Department put Iran's transfers to Hezbollah in the first 10 months of 2025 at $1 billion, according to Reuters. i24NEWS gave the figure as nearly $1 billion. Iran had promised Hezbollah more funding after it signed an interim deal with Washington in June that allowed it to sell oil. The deal collapsed in July. Washington has since tightened sanctions and imposed a naval blockade aimed at stopping Iranian oil exports.
Lebanon's health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed more than 4,300 people since March 2. Its figures do not distinguish civilians from combatants. The IDF says it has killed more than 2,500 Hezbollah operatives since early March. On May 4, Reuters put the number of Hezbollah fighters killed in the war at several thousand.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said last month that rebuilding after the two wars since 2024 could cost more than $27 billion. After the 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah quickly handed out large cash payments and moved fast to rebuild Beirut's southern suburbs. This time, there has been little sign of reconstruction.
