Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah meets senior Hamas official in Beirut

Khalil Al Hayya discussed situation in Palestine with the Hezbollah leader

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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah held talks with a Hamas delegation in Beirut, including the group’s deputy chief in the Gaza Strip, Khalil Al Hayya.

The two men discussed the situation in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, as well as negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza, Hezbollah said in a statement. Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, also attended the meeting.

It’s the most high profile public meeting between Mr Nasrallah and Hamas officials since the assassination on January 2 of Hamas deputy Saleh Al Arouri in an Israeli drone attack on southern Beirut.

Mr Al Arouri is the most senior Hamas official to be killed since October 7, and had operated as a go-between between the two Iran-backed groups.

The meeting between Mr Nasrallah and Hamas representatives comes after international efforts to secure a truce in Gaza before Ramadan failed to find agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Hezbollah has repeatedly said it would only agree to a ceasefire on the Lebanon-Israel border once Israel halted its military offensive in Gaza.

Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, has been engaged in near daily cross-border exchanges since October 8.

According to the powerful Lebanese group, part of its rationale is to ease the pressure on Hamas, who are battling Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. More than 200 Hezbollah fighters have been killed by Israel in the border violence.

Hamas launched a deadly incursion into southern Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,110 people and taking more than 200 hostages back into Gaza.

Israel has besieged the Palestinian enclave in response, killing more than 31,000 people there.

While clashes in Lebanon were initially contained to the border areas, they have gradually increased in their scope and intensity. There are fears they could spill over into a much wider war.

On Tuesday, for the second day in a row, Israeli warplanes struck deep into Lebanon, with alleged Hezbollah positions in the Bekaa Valley the targets.

The Israeli military said its fighter jets “struck two Hezbollah military command centres” in the Baalbek area, in response to Hezbollah rocket launches towards northern Israel earlier in the day.

Hezbollah said it fired more than 100 Katyusha rockets at 7am local time, aiming to hit several Israeli military posts, in response to Israeli shelling of the Bekaa Valley on Monday night that killed at least one civilian.