On Wednesday, the Lebanese daily al-Akhbar, affiliated with the Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah, reported that a senior Hamas official recently met with Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon. The Hamas official, serving as a representative on behalf of the Sunni terror group currently ruling the Gaza Strip, came for a private, off the record meeting to reinforce and increase ties between the two Islamist factions. The emissary reportedly conveyed a note from Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior official and co-founder of Hamas who advocates for increased relations with the Shiite Iranian regime.

Since the advent of the Syrian civil war, relations between the Sunni Hamas and Shiite Hezbollah have been tense. Hamas has advocated on behalf of Sunni factions, while the Iran-backed Hezbollah has been actively assisting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s Alawite regime. Nonetheless, relations have improved since Israel’s ground incursion into Gaza this summer. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah conveyed his support for Hamas during Operation Protective Edge, pledging to assist “the resistance in Gaza in any way necessary.”

On October 7th, Hezbollah fighters attacked an Israeli convoy inside Israeli territory, injuring two soldiers and prompting concerns about a deterioration of the Israel-Lebanon border.

Hamas has been characterized as following a ‘Hezbollah model’ in its formation of a unity government with Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority. The sophisticated network of attack tunnels that Israel destroyed during Operation Protective Edge were also designed after Hezbollah’s own.