Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh (C) in Beirut on April 5, 2023. (Courtesy of Muntasser Abdallah/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — The head of Hamas' political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, concluded his visits to Lebanon on Sunday after meeting with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
The Palestinian leader arrived in Lebanon last Wednesday, one day before dozens of rockets were fired from Lebanon toward Israel. Israel said Hamas was behind the operation.
The Israeli army retaliated early Friday with strikes on both southern Lebanon and Gaza, after rockets targeting Israel were also fired from the coastal enclave.
Haniyeh's visit came also after Israeli soldiers beat Palestinian worshipers in Al-Aqsa mosque in the occupied West Bank during the holy month of Ramadan. It is not clear whether his visit was previously scheduled or related to the rising escalation in the West Bank.
Nasrallah and Haniyeh met in Beirut to discuss "the readiness of the Axis of Resistance" against Israel, a Hezbollah statement said Sunday. The two parties view themselves as a resistance against Israel and are supported by Iran.
Following the strikes on Lebanon and Gaza, Israel announced early Sunday it had struck targets in Syria in response to six rockets fired from Syrian territory.
The latest assaults on Israel were not immediately claimed.
On Friday, two British-Israeli sisters — aged 16 and 20 — were killed and their mother seriously wounded in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank. That same evening, an Italian tourist was killed when a car intentionally drove into a bike path in Tel Aviv, injuring seven others.