Yaakov Lappin
JNS, Dec. 22, 2021
The deadly explosion that tore through a Hamas arms depot on December 10 in a mosque in the Burj Al Shimali refugee camp, in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, is a vivid reminder of Hamas’s growing organized armed presence on Lebanese territory – and Iran’s role in helping it grow.
The blast killed a Hamas engineer named Hamza Ibrahim Shahine, whose funeral turned into a gun battle between gunmen from Fatah and Hamas, leaving three people reportedly dead.
Two months before the blast, the mosque at Burj Al-Shimali was flagged as a central weapons manufacturing workshop in a detailed report by the Alma Center, a security watchdog based in northern Israel.
Two months before the blast, the mosque at Burj Al-Shimali was flagged as a central weapons manufacturing workshop in a detailed report by the Alma Center, a security watchdog based in northern Israel.
Hamas’s growing armed presence is not only a serious challenge for Hezbollah, due to Hamas’s independent decision-making on when to fire rockets at Israel – it is also creating a challenge for Fatah in Lebanon, Maj. (res.) Tal Beeri, director of the research department at the Alma Center, told JNS.
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