Lebanese Sunni militant group head says coordination with Shiite Hezbollah is significant to combat Israel

BEIRUT (AP) — The pinnacle of a Lebanese Sunni political and militant group that has joined the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in its combat towards Israel on Lebanon’s border stated Tuesday that the battle has helped strengthen cooperation between the 2 teams.

The Secretary-Common of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, Sheikh Mohammed Takkoush stated his faction determined to hitch the combating alongside the Lebanon-Israel border due to Israel’s crushing offensive on the Gaza Strip and its strikes towards Lebanese cities and villages killing civilians, including journalists, for the reason that Israel-Hamas struggle began on Oct.7.

“We determined to hitch (the battle) as a nationwide, spiritual and ethical obligation. We did that to defend our land and villages,” Takkoush informed The Related Press at his group’s headquarters in Beirut. “We additionally did so in help of our brothers in Gaza,” the place he stated Israel was committing an “open bloodbath.”

Hamas led a shock assault in southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed round 1,200 individuals and took one other 250 hostage. The following Israeli bombardment and floor invasion of the Gaza Strip has killed greater than 32,000 Palestinians there, in line with native well being officers. Since then, violence along the Lebanon-Israel border intensified, displacing tens of 1000’s of individuals on each side

Takkoush stated he believed Israel has ambitions to grab extra territory “not solely in Palestine however in Lebanon too.”

The Islamic Group is certainly one of Lebanon’s principal Sunni factions however has saved a low profile politically over time. It has one member in Lebanon’s 128-seat legislature. Elections inside the group in 2022 introduced its management nearer to Hamas.

Like Hamas, it’s impressed by the ideology of the Pan-Arab Islamist political motion The Muslim Brotherhood, based in Egypt in 1928 by a faculty teacher-turned-Islamic ideologue Hassan al-Banna.

It carries out assaults towards Israel primarily from the southern metropolis of Sidon the place the group as soon as loved vast affect.

Takkoush stated his group makes its personal selections within the area however coordinates intently with Hezbollah, and with the Lebanese department of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

“A part of (the assaults towards Israeli forces) have been in coordination with Hamas, which coordinates with Hezbollah,” he stated including that direct cooperation with Hezbollah “is on the rise and that is being mirrored within the area.” He didn’t elaborate additional.

Whereas the Lebanese border space is seen as a Hezbollah stronghold and its inhabitants is primarily Shiite, it additionally has Sunni villages, the place the Islamic Group primarily operates.

The tensions between Islam’s two principal sects — Sunni and Shiite — originated following the demise of Prophet Muhammad in 632. It has reverberated throughout the broader Center East until the current day thus making cooperation between Hezbollah and al-Jamaa al-Islamiya all of the extra uncommon.

The Islamic Group’s armed wing, often known as the Fajr Forces, has claimed duty for a collection of assaults alongside the Lebanon-Israel border for the reason that outbreak of the Israel-Hamas struggle.

They’ve misplaced 5 fighters to date, Takkoush stated, with three killed in an Israeli airstrike in a border space earlier this month.

The opposite two have been killed in a Jan. 2, Israeli strike on an residence in Beirut that focused top Hamas official Saleh Arouri.

The group’s use of weapons towards Israel is just not new. It based its Fajr Forces in 1982 on the top of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 ending an 18-year occupation. However the Lebanese authorities says Israel nonetheless occupies the disputed Chebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba hills that Israel captured from Syria through the 1967 Mideast struggle.

Within the present battle, “coordinating and cooperating with a motion like Hamas, essentially the most honorable liberation motion, is an honor,” Takkoush stated.

Relating to his group’s relations with Hezbollah, Takkoush stated it had gone by means of ups and downs. They’d variations relating to the conflicts in Syria and Yemen however put them apart “to withstand the Israeli occupation of components of our Lebanese territories,” he stated.

“Our relationships with Hezbollah are good and rising and it’s being strengthened as we undergo struggle,” Takkoush stated.

Takkoush added that each one the weapons they use, from bullets to rockets, are from their very own arsenal. “We didn’t get even a bullet from any facet,” he stated.

As Hezbollah has solidified its place as essentially the most highly effective political and navy entity in Lebanon, the nation’s Sunni neighborhood has floundered within the absence of a powerful chief.

Requested whether or not the Islamic Group is attempting to fill the hole in Lebanon’s Sunni political management left behind by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri who quit politics two years in the past, Takkoush stated that Prime Minister Saad Hariri nonetheless has a base of help and recognition, however his group was not within the behavior of filling anybody’s absence.

“We introduce ourselves as companions in constructing generations and (state) establishments however we don’t change anybody,” he stated.