It operates as a lender and financial services provider for civilians in many areas of Lebanon, where the traditional banking sector is in shambles. Many of its branches are situated on the ground floors of residential buildings, and it is deeply embedded in the Shiite Muslim communities it serves.

On social media on Sunday night, Avichay Adraee, the Arabic spokesman for the Israeli military, warned residents of Lebanon to evacuate buildings near the infrastructure of Al-Qard al-Hasan around Beirut and across southern and eastern Lebanon, saying that the organization “is involved in financing the terrorist activities of the Hezbollah organization against Israel.”

Soon after, the sounds of explosions could be heard ringing across Beirut, the Lebanese capital. A New York Times reporter saw dense plumes of black smoke rising in the near distance after the strikes.

The strikes marked an apparent escalation of Israel’s war against Hezbollah, with a senior Israel intelligence official saying the targeting of the banking system — rather than weapons depots or command and intelligence centers — was intended to disrupt Hezbollah’s day-to-day operations, undermine its support in Lebanese communities and hamper its ability to rebuild.

The financial organization has about 30 branches across Lebanon, including in the Dahiya, a densely packed area adjoining Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway.

Israel, the United States and others say that the group, despite its stated aims, serves as a front for Hezbollah financing. The group “purports to serve the Lebanese people” but in practice “illicitly moves funds through shell accounts and facilitators,” the Treasury Department said in 2021 when it was sanctioning individuals involved in what it called Hezbollah’s “shadow banking” network.

“In the coming days, we will reveal how Iran funds Hezbollah’s terror activities by using civilian institutions, associations, and NGOs that act as fronts for terrorism,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, said in a statement on Sunday evening.

Critics of the group say the organization allows Hezbollah to build up its influence with citizens in Lebanon while hobbling the state and putting Lebanon’s banks at risk of foreign sanctions.

A senior Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters said that Israel aims to disrupt Hezbollah’s day-to-day financial operations, including paying salaries of Hezbollah’s operatives, which all run through Al-Qard al-Hasan, and to undermine the trust between Hezbollah and the many Lebanese Shiite Muslims who use the branches as an alternative banking service.

Al-Qard al-Hasan said in a statement on Sunday that Israel had exhausted “its bank of objectives and has chosen to threaten and target Al-Qard al-Hasan, the non-profit organization.”

Lebanon is still reeling from a severe financial and economic crisis that began in 2019.

In October of that year, the country was rocked with protests calling for a new government, leading to the prime minister’s resignation.

But the government and the country have yet to recover — and the financial crisis was exacerbated in the years that followed, first by the Covid-19 pandemic, and then by a massive explosion in the port of Beirut in the summer of 2020. Desperate Lebanese citizens have at times even tried to hold up banks where they are customers in an effort to get their money.

Last year, Hezbollah began launching attacks at Israel in solidarity with Hamas after that group’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that ignited the war in Gaza. Israel and Hezbollah traded fire for many months in a steady exchange of strikes that seemed, until last month, to be designed to avoid an all-out war.

But Israel in September stepped up its attacks against Hezbollah, targeting its commanders and infrastructure in a series of intense strikes in and near Beirut and throughout southern Lebanon; more than 2,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023, with the vast majority of those deaths occurring in the recent uptick in Israeli attacks. In October, Israel also launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon that has led to the displacement of about a million people in Lebanon, according to local authorities.

On Sunday, residents of areas near branches of Al-Qard al-Hasan began fleeing after the evacuation warnings from Israel. Fatima Jneideh said she had evacuated her home just a few meters from a branch location in the Dahiya, an area near Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway. “My brother is still home,” she said. “He refused to leave.”

Isabel Kershner and Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut and Jerusalem.

The leaked documents, which began circulating on Friday on the Telegram app, were prepared in recent days by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is responsible for analyzing images and information collected by American spy satellites.

The documents, which are highly classified, offer interpretations of satellite imagery that provide insight into a potential strike by Israel on Iran in the coming days.

For weeks, an Israeli attack has been anticipated in retaliation for the Iranian missile assault on Oct. 1. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said that the strike was in retaliation for the assassinations of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in Lebanon; Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, killed in Tehran in July; and an Iranian commander.

The leaked documents offer a window into intense American concerns about Israel’s plans. U.S. officials are working to ascertain just how much material was leaked, and believe it was disclosed by a low-level government official.

The documents are dated Oct. 15 and represent only what analysts looking at satellite imagery could determine at that time.

Mr. Johnson said that he had spoken to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Saturday “to encourage him,” and said the United States should stand behind Israel.

“We cannot equivocate,” he said. “We can’t appease Iran. Now is the time for a maximum pressure campaign.”

On Friday, President Biden was asked in Germany whether he knew when Israel planned to strike and what kind of targets it had chosen. “Yes and yes,” he said, declining to say more.

But his statement seemed to suggest that he and Mr. Netanyahu had reached some kind of understanding about what kind of targets would be hit; previously, Mr. Biden called on Israel to avoid Iran’s nuclear sites and its energy facilities. The president has repeatedly raised concerns that if those targets, Iran’s crown jewels, were destroyed, the conflict would quickly escalate.

Mr. Johnson’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the briefing on Sunday.

Julian E. Barnes, Ronen Bergman and David E. Sanger contributed reporting.

“A number of victims are still under the rubble,” it said in a statement, adding that ambulances and rescue workers were having difficulty reaching the site. The Palestinian civil defense, an emergency service, said “dozens” of people had been killed and wounded in the attack, which was reported before midnight on Saturday.

There was no immediate comment from Israel’s military, which late on Saturday issued a statement saying it was examining what had happened. In that statement, it also disputed an initial toll from Hamas officials saying dozens of people had been killed. Those numbers, the military said, “do not align” with its initial assessment.

The Israeli military renewed an offensive earlier this month in northern Gaza, saying it was trying to eliminate a regrouped Hamas presence in the area. Roughly 400,000 people remain in northern Gaza, according to the United Nations, and many have been trapped in their ruined neighborhoods by Israeli airstrikes.

The U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, noted that the Beit Lahia strike came after “weeks of intensified operations that have resulted in scores of civilian fatalities.”

“The nightmare in Gaza is intensifying,” he wrote on social media. “Horrifying scenes are unfolding in the northern Strip amidst conflict, relentless Israeli strikes and an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis.”

Al Jazeera broadcast footage on Sunday of the immediate aftermath of the strike, which showed residents and rescue workers pulling limp bodies — including those of small children — from the rubble. Images taken at the scene on Sunday showed what appeared to be a completely flattened building.

Details of the strike were scarce and it was difficult to reach people in northern Gaza by phone. On Saturday, Paltel, a major Palestinian cellular provider, said the renewed Israeli offensive had caused wide-ranging communication blackouts in the northern part of the enclave.

Iyad Abuheweila contributed reporting.

One by one, the speakers also stressed the danger their family members in Gaza face and voiced their anger at what they see as the abandonment of the hostages by the government. Of the 101 hostages still in Gaza, at least a third are believed to be dead.

“Netanyahu, after Sinwar’s elimination, it’s obvious to everyone that the lives of the hostages are in danger,” said Ifat Calderon, whose cousin Ofer Calderon is being held in Gaza. “We all understand there is a narrow window of opportunity — and maybe the last — to save lives.”

Ms. Zangauker, who has been a vocal critic of Mr. Netanyahu throughout the war, said that the war’s goal, “which was to create the conditions for getting our hostages back, has been achieved.”

Mr. Netanyahu has stated throughout the war that Israel’s goals are to return the hostages and destroy Hamas’s capabilities to ensure Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israelis. During the Hamas-led attacks on Israel last October, about 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken into Gaza.

Several of the family members said they worried Mr. Netanyahu was dragging his feet on ending the war and that he feared his right-wing coalition partners, who have exhorted him to continue fighting Hamas and without whom Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition might collapse.

Addressing the prime minister, Ms. Calderon said, “If you do not take advantage of the current opportunity, if you do not place a new Israeli initiative on the table, that will clearly mean you have decided to abandon our hostages in order to extend the war and maintain your reign.”

The prime minister’s office could not be reached for comment. But Mr. Netanyahu has repeatedly depicted Hamas as the primary obstacle to an agreement.

“This war can end tomorrow,” Mr. Netanyahu said on Thursday after the death of Mr. Sinwar. “It can end if Hamas lays down its arms and returns our hostages.” On Friday, Mr. Sinwar’s longtime deputy said that Hamas would not soften its demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

But hostage family members stressed on Saturday that Mr. Sinwar’s death was a turning point, and they added that they wanted Mr. Netanyahu to do more to bring their family members home.

“Stop trying to sell your fake spins to the public as if you are doing everything to bring back the hostages,” said Yehuda Cohen, the father of Nimrod Cohen, another Israeli hostage.

The break-in occurred after a crowd gathered late on Friday in front of the channel’s building, started a fire and chanted, “No, no Al-Saud.”

Among those the MBC report characterized as terrorists were Yahya Sinwar, the military leader of Hamas, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza earlier this week; the Iranian Quds Force general, Qassim Suleimani, who was killed in a U.S. strike in Baghdad in 2020; and Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, killed by Israel near Beirut in September. All had been designated as terrorists by the United States, and Hamas and Hezbollah are supported by Iran.

Saudi Arabia’s Media Regulatory Authority said the report also violated its media policy. It said officials there were looking at the country’s own legal procedures to address the violation.

Representatives of MBC in Iraq did not respond to multiple efforts to reach them for comment, but the report appeared to have been taken down.

The government of Iraq is dominated by parties with links to Iran. Many party leaders view the men named in the MBC report as heroes and martyrs, and any public criticism is seen as nearly blasphemous.

In its announcement of MBC’s suspension, Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission said its duty was to “deter violators of national values ​​and public morals” and that MBC had repeatedly violated the rules in “its assaults on the martyrs.”

While the Iraqi government has close ties to Iran in many respects, Iraq’s population is diverse both religiously and ethnically. It has many Sunnis as well as Kurds, the majority of whom are also Sunni, and many in both communities are uncomfortable with the deference shown toward Iran. Many Shia Iraqis also privately express a similar discomfort. However, the armed groups’ ability to threaten violence has created a deep reluctance to speak out.

A member of Parliament, Farouk Hanna, the chairman of the body’s Culture, Media and Antiquities Committee, did not object to the government’s decision to suspend MBC’s license, but he did criticize the mob that vandalized the Saudi channel’s office’s.

“It’s an unjustified act,” he said. “There are legal ways to protest, not by burning and breaking things.”

The Interior Ministry’s spokesman, Muqdad Meri, said the ministry would investigate why the Interior Forces sent to stop the incident were unable to protect the station but made no promise to investigate the perpetrators of the vandalism.

MBC, formerly known as the Middle East Broadcasting Center, is not a stranger to controversy in Iraq. On at least two previous occasions the channel has been a target of criticism for its characterization of figures close to Iran.

Falih Hassan contributed reporting from Baghdad

Earlier this week, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said that his government had received “a sort of guarantee” from the Biden administration that Israel would scale back its attacks on Beirut. The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, affirmed on Wednesday that the Biden administration had told Israel that it opposed “near-daily strikes” in “densely populated areas of Beirut.”

“We also understand that what they’re conducting — the operations that they’re conducting to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure — is targeted,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said. She added that it was “critical that these operations be conducted in a way” that would not threaten the lives of civilians.

Israel had appeared to limit strikes in and around Lebanon’s capital after Ms. Jean-Pierre’s comments, but on Saturday, the Israeli military struck in the Dahiya, the densely packed urban area near Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway. The attacks appeared to be the heaviest bombardment in the area in days.

After a call with Mr. Austin on Saturday, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said in a statement that Israeli forces are committed “to mitigating harm” to both Lebanese civilians and to U.N. peacekeeping troops stationed in the country’s south.

Mr. Austin declined to comment on how long the Israeli aerial assault and limited ground invasion would last, referring questions on timing and objectives to Israeli officials.

Last month, Israel mounted a major offensive in Lebanon, targeting the leaders of Hezbollah, the Shiite militant and political group, and destroying much of its arsenal. The bombing has forced nearly one million people to leave their homes. Israel has said it needs to push Hezbollah fighters north and destroy their arms stockpiles to allow tens of thousands of Israeli residents to return to their homes in the country’s north after fleeing Hezbollah rocket barrages.

Speaking to reporters traveling with him after a security meeting of the Group of 7 in Naples, Italy, Mr. Austin also said “things are being done” to reverse a sharp decline in humanitarian aid to Gaza. He did not elaborate on what improvements had been made in recent days.

Last Sunday, Mr. Austin and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken wrote in a letter to senior Israeli officials that their nation would face consequences — including the risk of losing U.S. security aid — if humanitarian assistance to Gazans did not increase in the next 30 days.

The State Department said earlier this week that the amount of aid entering Gaza in September was the lowest it had been at any time since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which set off the Israeli invasion.

The American warning to Israel that it faces potential aid cuts comes as U.S. and U.N. officials say that conditions in Gaza, where most of the population has been displaced, and basic necessities are in short supply, have deteriorated still more in recent weeks. That is particularly the case in the territory’s north, as Israel has placed increasing restrictions on the delivery of international aid.

“We need to bend that curve in the other direction,” Mr. Austin said of the urgent shortages of humanitarian assistance. “We need to make sure these civilians in Gaza are getting what they need to survive.”

Also on Saturday, Mr. Austin told his Israeli counterpart, Mr. Gallant, in a phone call, that he was relieved that no one had been injured by a drone that had been launched from Lebanon toward the private residence of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the coastal town of Caesarea, according to the Pentagon press secretary, Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder.

According to the ministry, Israeli forces had fired gunshots and artillery in the direction of the Indonesian Hospital, on the outskirts of Jabaliya, the focus of an intense Israeli raid that has lasted days. More than 40 patients and medical staff were injured in the attacks, and two patients in critical condition died when the hospital lost power, the head of the World Health Organization said in a statement on social media on Saturday.

The Israeli military said it was trying to minimize harm to civilians during its operations near the Indonesian Hospital. “The hospital continues to operate without disruption and in full capacity, and there was no intentional fire directed at it,” the military said in a statement.

In a separate statement, the military said late Saturday that it had evacuated about 100 people from Jabaliya during its operations in Jabaliya and had been working to ensure that hospital emergency services would continue to function. It did not specifically address the Gazan health ministry’s claims that Israeli forces had encircled the Kamal Adwan and al-Awda medical centers.

Israeli forces stormed Jabaliya this month in at least their third major offensive there since the beginning of the war a year ago, in what the military has characterized as an offensive against resurgent Hamas fighters in the area. The operation has pressed ahead in the days since Israel killed Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, in a firefight in southern Gaza, dampening hopes that his death could pave the way to an easing of the war.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza on Saturday, according to Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman.

Israel issued evacuation warnings in Jabaliya last week, but many people have stayed behind, believing they have nowhere safe to flee to. The United Nations has said that the remaining residents are in effect under siege.

Jonathan Whittall, a senior U.N. humanitarian official in Jerusalem, on Saturday called the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in northern Gaza “deeply alarming.” Israel has allowed relatively few aid trucks into the area since the beginning of the month, raising the threat of hunger and deprivation.

“Tens of thousands are displaced, and we have received reports today of hospitals under fire with staff and patients injured,” Mr. Whittall said in a statement. “We are ready to provide food and essential supplies, but lives are being lost, and time is running out.”

On Saturday, the fog of war hung over Jabaliya: Many residents were inaccessible by phone or text message. Paltel, a major Palestinian cellular provider, said the Israeli assault had caused wide-ranging communication blackouts in northern Gaza, making it difficult to independently confirm what was taking place within the hospitals.

The Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency service under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, said that Israeli strikes overnight had killed or injured dozens of people in Jabaliya.

Hani al-Dibs, a high school teacher from the town, said by phone on Saturday that his family had stayed in their home, feeling that they had nowhere safe to go. If they abandoned their house, Hamas fighters might use it as a military post, leading Israeli forces to bombard it, he said.

Israeli forces have also attacked schools and hospitals where people sought shelter, arguing that Hamas was attempting to operate there unscathed.

“In my home, I know we’re no threat to the Israeli army,” Mr. al-Dibs said. “Any place that we might flee to — how can we be certain we won’t find ourselves next to someone they want?”

For nearly two weeks, he and his family stayed in Jabaliya as the fighting grew more intense. They stayed in the center of the house and avoided its windows and doors, fearing that Israeli soldiers might mistake them for militants, he said.

On Friday morning, an explosion ripped through part of his home, burying several of his relatives, including his mother. Mr. al-Dibs survived but said his wife and two of his four young children were still under the rubble.

Paramedics rushed Mr. al-Dibs and other survivors to the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. As for his remaining family members, he said emergency responders had been unable to reach the scene because of the fighting.

While some people have stayed, tens of thousands have fled Jabaliya since Israel began its operation there two weeks ago, including 20,000 on Friday alone, according to UNRWA, the main United Nations agency that aids Palestinians in Gaza.

Even on the edges of town, newly displaced Gazans can still hear constant bursts of shelling and bombardment in Jabaliya.

Montaser Bahja, an English teacher and Jabaliya resident, fled with his wife and children after a relative was wounded by gunfire on one of the first days of the Israeli offensive. Now in Gaza City, he desperately worries about the fate of his house, which he fears may have been bombarded in their absence.

“It feels like Gaza is over, done,” said Mr. Bahja, 50. “Even if the war ends — how could we ever rebuild? Who will want to live here?”