Hezbollah Received $200 Million From Iran for Displaced Lebanese

Good Morning, Israel · Thursday, October 8, 2026 · 7:33

Episode 11 · Thursday, October 8, 2026 · 7:33

0:007:33

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The stories Maya and Daniel cover, in order. Read any of them in full on baba News.

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Maya: Three years after October seventh, Israel is remembering the massacre at separate ceremonies, one run by the government and one by the families.
Daniel: And the money trail from Tehran. Iran sent Hezbollah two hundred million dollars last month, and middlemen took a cut.
Maya: This is Good Morning, Israel from baba News. It's Thursday, October eighth. I'm Maya.
Daniel: And I'm Daniel.
Maya: Yesterday was the anniversary itself. Why two sets of ceremonies?
Daniel: Because the families and the government aren't standing in the same place. The main national event in Tel Aviv was organized by bereaved families and survivors, paid for with donations, and it featured some of Israel's best-known artists.
Maya: And the government?
Daniel: It held its own state ceremonies. The families are demanding accountability, and an investigation into how October seventh happened.
Maya: So the grief is shared. The question of who answers for it isn't.
Daniel: Exactly. And opposition leaders went south, to separate memorial events near the communities that were hit.
Maya: With an election on October twenty-seventh, that split carries weight.
Daniel: It does. The demand for an inquiry has become one of the sharpest lines between the government and its critics.
Maya: Beyond the ceremonies, people have been sharing something more personal.
Daniel: The last WhatsApp messages. Texts victims sent their families that morning, or the replies that never got read. They're being posted alongside documentaries and eulogies online.
Maya: Ordinary messages that became the last ones.
Daniel: Right. Plans for the weekend, and then a few minutes later, nothing. Three years on, the grief and the anger are still very raw.
Maya: Staying with October seventh, a court ruling about what happened in the days after.
Daniel: The Nova music festival was the outdoor party near the Gaza border where Hamas terrorists carried out one of the worst killings of the massacre. In the aftermath, professional sound equipment was looted from the site.
Maya: Looted. From that site.
Daniel: Yes. The Beersheba District Court, Beersheba being the main city in Israel's south, has sentenced two men. Ram Shahin, who the court identified as the organizer, got seven years in prison, plus heavy fines and compensation.
Maya: And the second man?
Daniel: Daniel Hasson, who tried to sell the equipment. Forty months, also with fines and compensation.
Maya: What did the judge say?
Daniel: The judge called it a cynical exploitation of a national tragedy, and said the sentences are meant to show a strong response from the state to looting.
Maya: A message for anyone who sees a disaster as an opportunity.
Daniel: That's the intent.
Maya: Abroad now. Donald Trump weighed in on the anniversary.
Daniel: In his first official statement on it, he called October seventh one of the darkest and most horrific days in Israel's history, and he vowed never to forget it, or the victims.
Maya: Did he talk to Jerusalem?
Daniel: He spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and said the people behind the attack are paying a very big price.
Maya: In New York, the tone was very different.
Daniel: Mayor Zohran Mamdani began by mourning the Israeli victims. Then he turned to Gaza and leveled the harshest accusations there are against Israel.
Maya: On the anniversary of a massacre of Israelis.
Daniel: Right, and that's his claim. Israeli diplomats condemned it sharply. And the context matters. The war began because Hamas terrorists crossed into Israel that morning and took hostages. The I D F's operations in Gaza target that terrorist organization.
Maya: And New York's governor?
Daniel: Governor Kathy Hochul put out her own statement, focused on the victims of the Hamas attack. That was the day the city's memorial events were actually about.
Maya: To the north. Two hundred million dollars from Iran to Hezbollah.
Daniel: Hezbollah is the Iranian-backed terrorist organization in Lebanon. According to the reports, the money came in September, earmarked for Lebanese displaced by the war.
Maya: How many people?
Daniel: About fifty thousand families whose homes were destroyed or can't be reached. And the intermediaries moving the cash charged a twenty percent commission.
Maya: A fifth of the money, gone before it lands.
Daniel: Right. Why it matters for Israel is simple. Iran is still paying Hezbollah, and money that buys loyalty in southern Lebanon helps the terrorists hold their ground there.
Maya: There's a Syria angle too.
Daniel: A secret meeting in Turkey last month between Syrian officials and Hezbollah, mediated by Turkish intelligence. The aim was to lower tensions and sort out security disputes.
Maya: What did Syria want?
Daniel: Damascus said it won't intervene militarily in Lebanon. But it pressed Hezbollah to curb arms smuggling and dismantle its cells inside Syria.
Maya: So even Syria wants Hezbollah's weapons pipeline shut.
Daniel: That's what the reports describe. And that pipeline matters to Israel too, because it's how Hezbollah has rearmed.
Maya: Now the Flydubai flight. We told you yesterday about the axe attack in the cockpit and the co-pilot's words about revenge for Gaza. Today the story moves to Israel's Transport Ministry.
Daniel: Lahav four thirty-three, the Israel Police's elite unit for corruption and serious crime, is investigating ministry officials for suspected conflicts of interest.
Maya: Over what?
Daniel: Their work with foreign airlines, including Flydubai. The question is whether they had proper approval for outside jobs.
Maya: Any names?
Daniel: Two. Avraham Cohen, known as Afri, and Dvir Rubinstein. They're being examined for work with airlines that was undeclared or improperly approved.
Maya: Last week, the ministry was accused of failing to enforce rules on foreign crews. Now it's officials working for those airlines.
Daniel: Which is why this probe followed the Flydubai incident. These are suspicions, nobody's been charged, but for a ministry already under review, it's a hard week.
Maya: Quick round now. The fallout for travelers in Dubai.
Daniel: Arkia, an Israeli airline, canceled its flights bringing Israelis home from Dubai after its permits were revoked following the attempted attack. Israelis are stranded there.
Maya: And the local carriers?
Daniel: Flydubai and Emirates have suspended flights to and from Israel. Hundreds of passengers are affected.
Maya: And the investigation has gone international.
Daniel: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are investigating, and possibly New Zealand, one of the countries where, as we mentioned yesterday, the co-pilot reportedly trained. Israel has offered to help the Saudi probe.
Maya: Israel offering Riyadh investigative help. That sentence would have been hard to imagine a few years ago.
Daniel: It's a small detail, but it says something about how these ties have shifted.
Maya: And one airline coming back. British Airways.
Daniel: It resumes Tel Aviv flights on October twenty-fifth, one daily flight from London, fewer than before. It kept postponing since the war with Iran began in March.
Maya: Many others returned in April and June.
Daniel: Right. British Airways is one of the last.
Maya: Fashionably late, though without the fashion.
Daniel: One flight a day. Hardly a grand entrance.
Maya: So what's worth watching today?
Daniel: Those stranded Israelis in Dubai. Whether Arkia gets its permits back, or someone else finds a way to bring them home.
Maya: Follow Good Morning, Israel so tomorrow's episode is waiting for you.
Daniel: See you tomorrow morning.

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