Lebanese media reported over the weekend that Israel has provided the United Nations with evidence suggesting Hamas operatives have been training in Hezbollah bases in southern Lebanon.
According to the report, the training is a product of increasingly close ties between Hamas—the Gaza-based terrorist group—and Iran’s Shi’ite proxy in Lebanon, fostered by Hamas’s deputy political chief Saleh Arouri and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Arouri has recently set Hamas’s main political headquarters in Beirut.
The reports also said that Israel has relayed a firm message to Lebanon indicating that it will hold Lebanon responsible for hosting groups that are hostile towards Israel or pose a threat to Israel’s security.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “the issue was on the agenda of the Israeli Mission to the United Nations, and is regularly presented in official letters and speeches before the General Assembly and the Security Council.”
“The collaboration between Hamas and Hezbollah crosses borders,” said Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon. “The implications of the Hamas terror regime extend to Lebanon. Now Hamas is bolstering its relations with Hezbollah, with Iran’s support and assistance, and also working to establish operational capability from Lebanese soil.
“I have recently approached the members of the Security Council and brought the cooperation between these terrorist organizations to their attention,” said Danon. “I have also made it clear that Israel will not sit idly by given the new—and old—threats it faces.”
