Lebanon’s Hezbollah hosts Hamas delegation, fires 60 rockets on Israel

BEIRUT — Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah hosted a Hamas delegation in Beirut on Wednesday as more than 60 rockets were launched from inside Lebanese territories toward Israel, further escalating tensions on the Lebanese-Israeli front.

The meeting, held in an undisclosed location, brought together Nasrallah and Khalil al-Hayya, deputy head of Hamas in Gaza, as well as Mohammed Nasr, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, and Osama Hamdan, a Lebanon-based spokesperson for the Palestinian movement.

According to the Hezbollah-affiliated al-Manar outlet, they discussed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and the region as well as the stalled negotiations on a Gaza truce and hostage deal.

The Lebanese and Palestinian leaders also confirmed during their meeting the ongoing cooperation between the various factions of the “axis of resistance” to achieve the goals of the operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” which Hamas launched against Israel Oct. 7.

The so-called axis of resistance includes Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its allies Hamas, Lebanese Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad.

Nasrallah has held a series of meetings with delegations from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad since the war in the Gaza Strip broke out. Most recently, in April, Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas' political bureau, and his deputy Saleh al-Arouri were in Beirut for talks with the Hezbollah leader.

Just one day after Hamas launched its unprecedented assault on southern Israel, Hezbollah began firing rockets from southern Lebanon toward Israel in support of the Palestinian movement.

The daily cross-border fire has since intensified, raising fears of an all-out war in Lebanon.

On Wednesday, a salvo of more than 60 rockets was fired from Lebanon toward Mount Hermon, in northern Israel, Israeli news outlets reported, citing the Israeli military. Israeli air defenses intercepted several rockets while others caused minor damage, according to the military.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement published on its website, the paramilitary group said it had launched dozens of Katyusha rockets, heavy rockets and artillery shells at the air traffic control base in Mount Hermon.

Hezbollah also claimed to have struck “newly developed technical systems and spy equipment” at an Israeli site in the disputed Shebaa Farms area, destroying some of them.

The group said Wednesday’s attacks came in response to the killing of one of its commanders, who it identified as Hussein Ibrahim Makki, in an Israeli drone strike near the southern city of Tyre last night.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military confirmed the killing of Makki, identifying him as a senior field commander in Hezbollah who was responsible for several “acts of terrorism” against Israel.

Hezbollah has named at least 295 members who have been killed in the exchanges of fire with Israel since Oct. 8. The hostilities have also killed more than 79 civilians in Lebanon, including three journalists, according to a tally by Agence France-Presse.

On the Israeli side, Israel says 14 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed.