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Hezbollah planned to join Hamas invasion but was deterred by US – report

When the US moved ships into the region, Hezbollah ‘preferred to avoid destruction.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Hamas and Hezbollah planned to carry out a comprehensive attack on Israel from all sides, but when the US sided with Israel following October 7th, Hezbollah decided to participate in the war “only symbolically” a Hamas source told the Saudi network Asharq.

After Israel’s “Guardian of the Walls” operation in 2021, the terrorist groups noticed “gaps in Israeli security” that would allow a “comprehensive ground invasion.”

However, the October 7th attack as well as the United States’ firm backing of Israel took Hezbollah by surprise, and the Hamas source said Hezbollah was only minimally involved compared to previous plans.

The goal of the terrorist organizations was “to disrupt the activities of the IDF and state institutions” and to force Israel to retreat from Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem to pre-1967 borders.

The invasion was intended not only to be in the south, which was carried out by Hamas on October 7th, but also in the north by Hezbollah.

Syrian troops were supposed to help Hezbollah with strikes on power and water stations in Israel.

After the Hamas attack on October 7th, Hezbollah decided to wait and see what the response from the US would be.

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When US moved ships into the region, “They preferred to avoid destruction and decided to participate in the war symbolically,” the Hamas source said.

Since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah has been firing missiles into border towns in the north of Israel.

The situation intensified following a strike killing Hamas’s political number two, terror chief Salah al-Arouri, in a Hezbollah stronghold in the southern Beirut suburbs on Tuesday.

After the attack, which was blamed on Israel, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed that any war with Israel would be “without limits.”

However, a senior Biden Administration official told the US press on Wednesday that Lebanon doesn’t want war with Israel.
“I think from everything that we can tell, there is no clear desire from Hezbollah to go to war with Israel, and vice versa,” he said.