Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah met with a delegation led by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Beirut on Sunday to discuss cooperation, amid spiking violence in Israel from rocket barrages and terror attacks.
In addition to two deadly terror attacks on Friday, rockets were fired last week from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in attacks Israel has blamed on Hamas. Six rockets were fired toward Israel overnight from Syria.
Lebanese media reported the two terror chiefs discussed cooperation between their groups amid recent clashes at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, and the escalation in violence in Israel and the West Bank.
Saleh al-Arouri, a founding commander of Hamas’s military wing and the group’s West Bank leader, accompanied the delegation.
According to Channel 12 news, al-Arouri is thought to be responsible for the firing of the rockets from Lebanon last week.
Thirty-four rockets were fired from southern Lebanon on Thursday afternoon in the most serious barrage in years, with 25 intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system over northern Israel. At least three people were injured and several buildings were damaged. Rockets were also fired from the Gaza Strip. The attacks followed two consecutive nights of clashes between police and Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has close ties with Hamas, which rules Gaza, and with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which is also based in the coastal enclave.
Hamas has been gradually establishing a presence in Lebanon over the past several years with a nod from Hezbollah.
The meeting between the terror leaders came as regional tensions soared as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan clashed with the Jewish holiday of Passover. Channel 12 news said the terror chiefs met as Esmail Qaani, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, was visiting Damascus.
Following police incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque to quell rioting on Thursday, Hamas terrorists fired volleys of rockets at Israel from Gaza and Lebanon, prompting Israeli retaliatory strikes.
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