On Dec. 17, 1992, Israel deported 415 Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists from the West Bank and Gaza to Marj al-Zouhour in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Their deportation would bring about the first direct contact between the Hamas and Hezbollah movements. On June 17, 2013, Hamas urged Hezbollah “to take its forces out of Syria and to keep their weapons directed against the Zionist enemy, especially given that its intervention in Syria has contributed to increasing the sectarian polarization in the region." The statement, issued by Hamas leadership in Cairo, was posted on the Facebook page of Mousa Abu Marzuq, deputy chairman of Hamas' political bureau.

Hamas’ statement was tough on the Party of God, which had assisted it for 20 years with military training and arms and missile smuggling. The Lebanese group had also granted Hamas leaders a secure refuge in the Hezbollah stronghold of al-Dahiya, a southern suburb of Beirut. In addition, Iranian funding and arming of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement allowed it to become the most powerful group in Gaza and the second most influential in the West Bank as well as in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria.

A Lebanese source close to Hezbollah who spoke on condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor on June 18 that it was remarkable that Hezbollah had not publicly commented or responded to Hamas’ position as well as previous statements of its leaders that were critical of Hezbollah. The Palestinian movement had begun openly criticizing the Shiite party after its decision to engage militarily in the Syrian civil war. Meanwhile, a Syrian source who also requested anonymity alleged to Al-Monitor on June 18 that Hamas had itself been involved in the Syrian war from day one, lending the Free Syrian Army its military expertise as well as having fighters involved in the Yarmouk camp battle near Damascus.

The Lebanese source denied reports that Hezbollah, bristling at Hamas' comments about its Syrian involvement, had instructed Hamas members in Lebanon to leave the country, and in particular, to close their offices in al-Dahiya. He added, “It is no longer a secret that the office of the Hamas representative, Ussama Hamdan, was in the building next to what had been the house of Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, prior to its destruction in the 2006 war.” This proximity was a clear sign to all of the strong alliance between the two movements.