In an analysis published on Thursday by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Arab affairs analyst Pinchas Inbari wrote that Hamas is positioned to open a new front in its war with Israel—in the north. Inbari cites a Lebanese news site that connected Qatar-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal with the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front, which reportedly just captured a Syrian crossing into Israel.

The Lebanese news website Ertikaz published important information on the circumstances behind the establishment of the two movements in the Yarmouk camp, and it is clear that no less a figure than Hamas’ Khaled Mashaal stands behind both of them — almost certainly from the time he was given protection by the Syrian regime prior to the Syrian rebellion.

According to Ertikaz, Khaled Mashaal’s bodyguard was Muhammad Zaghmout, whose family lives in Gaza. Zaghmout and additional Palestinians who hold key positions in both movements are “graduates” of Afghanistan fighting and filled various posts in Khaled Mashaal’s military organization. According to this report, Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis is the leading organization and al Nusra coordinates with it.

According to Ertikaz, Inbari writes, Zaghmout serves as a commander of both Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdiss and al-Nusra.

In addition to the personal connection between Meshaal and the al-Nusra Front, Inbari describes the group “as a Syrian movement”  that “like Hamas, belong[s] to the military wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.” The al-Nusra Front, also like Hamas, is funded by Qatar.

Earlier this week at the behest of Qatar, the al-Nusra Front released captured American journalist Peter Curtis. Subsequently, the group was reported to have captured the Syrian side of the Quneitra crossing with Israel. A day later, the Syrian air force bombed al-Nusra Front positions near the border with Israel.

Jonathan Spyer characterized Qatar’s support of Hamas and the al-Nusra Front, in Qatar’s Rise and America’s Tortured Foreign Policy, which appeared in the August 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine, as being part of “the three-way divide in today’s Middle East.” The other groups are the “moderate and Western-oriented Sunni Arab states, like Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and others” and “the dangerous and radical axis of Iran, Assad, and Hezbollah.”

[Photo: huseen alajmi / YouTube ]