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Hezbollah hosts Palestinian factions as warnings surge over Lebanon's volatility

Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire since Hamas launched its surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, raising fears of a new front in south Lebanon.
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah meets deputy head of Hamas’ politburo Saleh al-Arouri, and head of the Islamic Jihad Ziad al-Nakhalah.

BEIRUT — As sporadic cross-border fire between the Hezbollah movement and Israel continues, fear that the Hamas-Gaza war might spill to the rest of the Middle East, including south Lebanon, has increased on Wednesday as travel alerts poured in and Palestinian armed factions held a three-way meeting with Hezbollah's leader. 

On Wednesday, the chief of the heavily armed Hezbollah group met with the leaders of the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements in Lebanon.

The meeting, held in an undisclosed location, brought together Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, deputy political head of Hamas Saleh al-Arouri and Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhalah. The three leaders discussed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel as well as the ongoing exchanges of fire on the Lebanese-Israeli border, according to a statement released by Hezbollah’s media office.

The statement explained that the meeting “assessed the international and regional stances as well as steps to be taken by the Axis of Resistance in this critical phase in order to achieve an all-out victory and to stop the brutal attack on the oppressed people of Gaza and the West Bank.”

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