The Lebanese organization Jamaa Islamiya, which lost seven of its rescuers in an Israeli airstrike Tuesday night in Hebbariyeh, is closely linked to the Palestinian group Hamas. Together, they claim responsibility for launching attacks against Israel from southern Lebanon.

“All the forces operating in southern Lebanon coordinate their actions,” stated Ali Abou Yassine, the head of the political bureau of this small group, to AFP.

Since the beginning of the war between Israel and the Palestinian organization in the Gaza Strip nearly six months ago, Hezbollah has claimed, along with allied groups, attacks against Israel from southern Lebanon in support of Hamas.

According to a Lebanese group official who spoke on condition of anonymity, Jamaa Islamiya has claimed responsibility for some of these attacks, including “joint operations with Hamas” present in Lebanon.

“The Jamaa Islamiya operates in Lebanon as an extension of Hamas,” explains analyst Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center to AFP, adding that “the two groups have an organic relationship.”

On the Same Wavelength

The analyst states that this movement “is not a formation subordinate to Hezbollah.” While its relations with the pro-Iranian group have encountered challenges, they have recently improved, especially since the September 2022 election of a new leadership, even closer to Hamas, headed by Sheikh Mohammad Takkoush.

“We have differences with Hezbollah due to its involvement in the war in Syria alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s regime,” says Ali Abou Yassine to AFP.

Once allies of Damascus, Hamas’s relations with the Syrian government deteriorated at the start of the 2011 Syrian civil war. The Palestinian movement refused to take sides with the Syrian regime, while Hezbollah fought alongside it.

“Today, we’re on the same wavelength as Hezbollah regarding the Palestinian issue, but we still hold different views on Syria,” affirms the Jamaa Islamiya official, who spoke anonymously.

Established in the early 1960s, the Lebanese group “adheres to the ideology of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood,” which has spread across the Arab world and from which Hamas, founded in 1987, also originates, he explains.

Politically speaking, Jamaa Islamiya holds “marginal” influence according to analyst Mohanad Hage Ali, with currently only one member in the Lebanese Parliament.

The official, speaking under anonymity, underscores that the group refrained from involvement in the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990).