The leaders of the Lebanese pro-Iranian Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and the Palestinian Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, met in Lebanon to discuss “cooperation” with Israel at a time of resurgence of violence in the Middle East, announced this Sunday to Hezbollah.
Israel bombed Lebanon and the Gaza Strip on Friday, citing retaliation for firing unclaimed rockets, which it said were “Palestinian” and most likely emanated from Hamas, the ruling movement in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military claims that Hamas, led by Ismail Haniyeh, who has been in Beirut since Wednesday, was responsible for firing about 30 rockets on Thursday from Lebanon and several more from Gaza.
During their meeting, the leaders of the two movements (Hezbollah and Hamas) stressed that “the resistance axis is ready” in light of recent developments and that “their members are working together” in the region, according to a statement from Hezbollah.
The “axis of resistance” is the term used in reference to Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian and other movements close to Iran that oppose Israel.
The two men also cited “the intensification of resistance in the West Bank and Gaza” and “the events at the Al-Aqsa Mosque” to justify this cooperation, the same statement said.
In the early hours of Wednesday, Israeli police violently stormed Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, and beat Palestinians who had been arrested in prayer, in what is the month of Ramadan.
The invasion of the mosque to remove the approximately 400 Palestinians inside was justified by Israeli authorities with the charge that they had barricaded themselves inside the temple with “fireworks, sticks and stones”.
This event led to further tensions, with the Hezbollah movement immediately rising to condemn the violence by the Israeli police and support “all measures” taken by Palestinian organizations against Israel.
“Hezbollah strongly condemns the attack by the Israeli occupation forces on the esplanade of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and their attacks on worshipers,” the Lebanon-based Shiite group said.
After rockets fired from Gaza and Lebanon, Israel announced Saturday night that it had reached Syria, this time in response to rockets fired from Syrian territory.
According to the Israeli military, at least one of the missiles fired from Syria was intercepted by Israeli air defenses and two landed in unpopulated areas of the Golan Heights annexed by Israel after its 1967 conquest.
Following the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, two terrorist attacks took place, one in Tel Aviv, which killed an Italian tourist and injured seven people, and another in the West Bank, which killed two sisters from the Israeli colony of Efrat. came to life. , of Israeli and British citizenship, and left the mother seriously injured.
Source: DN
