Hezbollah has increased its purchases of gold bullion in recent months and begun moving the metal into centralized storage facilities away from public view, according to a Lebanese security source, as growing financial pressure makes it harder for the group to access and move U.S. dollars.

The source told Erem News that the move was aimed at building a financial reserve that could be stored and liquidated outside Lebanon's banking system.

Hezbollah has previously developed networks capable of moving large quantities of gold through Syria and Turkey, the source said, relying on commercial and financial intermediaries who have operated along those routes for years.

In February, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Jood SARL, a Lebanese gold exchange company it said operated under the supervision of Hezbollah-linked Al-Qard Al-Hassan and helped convert the group's gold reserves into usable funds. The Treasury said senior Al-Qard Al-Hassan officials had established gold-trading companies in Lebanon and potentially abroad as Hezbollah sought to ease liquidity pressures during 2025.

The Treasury has also identified Ali Mohamad Karnib, a senior Al-Qard Al-Hassan official who headed its purchasing department, as having overseen the purchase of more than 1,000 ounces of gold for the organization from July 2024.

That transaction suggests Hezbollah's efforts to build up gold reserves predated the latest escalation in pressure on its finances.

Karnib was also identified by the Treasury as a co-owner and managing partner of Jood alongside Mohamed Nayef Maged. The company was established as part of what Washington described as efforts by Al-Qard Al-Hassan to expand its gold-trading activities and provide the group with access to usable funds.

The network extends beyond buying and selling gold. U.S. authorities have described a structure involving officials responsible for gold purchases, valuation and storage, pointing to an organized system rather than a series of isolated dealings with gold traders.

Reports cited by Erem News said Karnib was killed in April 2026.

Lebanese authorities also foiled an attempt last year to smuggle more than 22 kilograms of gold allegedly belonging to Hezbollah through Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport, according to the Wall Street Journal.

From Gold Collateral to Direct Purchases

Gold has long played a role in Al-Qard Al-Hasan's financial system. The Hezbollah-linked institution has for years accepted gold as collateral for interest-free loans.

The more recent development, according to the reporting, is a move toward directly acquiring gold and establishing specialized companies to trade and liquidate it, alongside an increase in Hezbollah's purchases of standardized bullion.

The Lebanese security source said some Al-Qard Al-Hasan branches have tightened their conditions for dollar loans and now favor standard gold coins, ounces and bullion bars as collateral.

Al-Qard Al-Hasan has acknowledged that gold is bought and sold for cash and through installment arrangements via licensed commercial companies and authorized representatives. It has denied U.S. allegations that its activities are used to finance Hezbollah.

There are no reliable public estimates of how much gold Hezbollah holds.

The security source claimed the group had doubled its gold reserves over the previous three months, in addition to gold deposited by customers with Al-Qard Al-Hassan.

Why Bullion?

For Hezbollah, bullion offers several advantages over holding cash, according to the source.

Gold can retain value relatively well, does not require a bank account, can be stored for long periods and, when held in standardized forms, can be assessed and resold more easily than jewelry.

For an organization facing extensive sanctions and increasing restrictions on financial transfers, gold can also serve as an emergency reserve: it can be accumulated when liquidity is available and converted into dollars or other currencies when cash is needed.

That makes the purchase of more than 1,000 ounces overseen by Karnib significant. It indicates that the accumulation of gold may have been part of a longer-term strategy rather than simply a response to the group's latest financial difficulties.

A Distributed Financial Reserve

Lebanese researcher and political writer Ali Hamadeh said gold forms part of Hezbollah's financial base but cannot replace the dollars needed to run its day-to-day operations.

Hamadeh told Erem News that Hezbollah had accumulated gold and foreign currencies over decades and distributed them among multiple locations rather than concentrating its wealth in a single facility.

The same principle, he said, applies to the group's weapons stockpiles.

Reports of a huge gold reserve concentrated at one location, such as Ali al-Taher, would therefore not fit that strategy, Hamadeh said. He estimated that some sites could contain gold and foreign currencies worth up to about $10 million, but said such holdings would represent only a small portion of a much larger pool of dispersed reserves.

The dollar remains central to Hezbollah's financial operations, particularly for paying thousands of salaries and covering operating expenses, Hamadeh said. Gold instead serves as a reserve intended to preserve wealth outside the formal banking system.

Gold entering Lebanon is not necessarily transported only in the form of bullion, he added.

In previous periods, networks moved small quantities of worked gold through large numbers of travelers, particularly on flights arriving from Turkey. Distributing the metal among many passengers made the overall quantity more difficult to detect, he said.

Another route involves Iranian cash transfers moving through Iraq and Syria before reaching Lebanon, according to Hamadeh.

That corridor was easier to use under Bashar al-Assad's government, he said, but has since become narrower and more closely monitored. It has not disappeared completely, however, with longstanding smuggling networks and border gangs continuing to operate between Iraq and Syria, between Turkey and Syria, and along the Syrian-Lebanese border.

The wider picture points to a financial strategy built around diversification rather than a single stockpile.

The Lebanese security source said Hezbollah's recent increase in bullion purchases and its decision to move gold into distributed storage facilities suggest the group is treating the metal as a geographically dispersed financial reserve.

Rather than relying on one vault that could be located and destroyed, the strategy would allow Hezbollah to preserve part of its wealth and retain access to a source of liquidity even under conditions of war, sanctions and a prolonged financial squeeze.