Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and leader of Hamas in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh met in Nasrallah's office in Beirut on Saturday night.
Other senior members of Hamas attended the meeting.
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The ties between the two terrorist organizations, and between them and Iran, became clear when Haniyeh not only attended, but took an active part in the funeral of former Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimni, who was killed in a US airstrike this past January.
The meeting between Haniyeh and Narallah, who is effectively a protégé of Iran and even sent Hezbollah forces to fight Iran's proxy war in Syria, indicates that Hamas is drawing closer to Tehran.
Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah bothered to hide that the Beirut meeting had been called to discuss opposition to the Trump administration peace plan; "total opposition" to any Arab state normalizing relations with Israel; and setting up a unified "opposition axis" to combat pressure and threats.
"Both sides discussed the power of ties between Hezbollah and Hamas," Hezbollah said.
"The relations are based on trust, brotherhood, jihad, and a shared fate. Nasrallah and Haniyeh spoke about developing mechanisms for cooperation and coordination between their organizations."
In addition, the two leaders discussed political and military developments in Israel, Lebanon, and the rest of the region.
The purpose of Ismail Haniyeh's trip to Lebanon was to secure political capital within Hamas ahead of the election for the leadership, [in which he is vying] against Khaled Mashaal and Yahya Sinwar, which are slated to be held in November," senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Yoni Ben Menahem told Israel Hayom.
"Haniyeh is dealing with the fallout of having violated his promise to Egypt not to go to Iran. Two weeks ago, his wife and two daughters, with their husbands, wanted to leave the Gaza Strip to join him in Qatar, and Egypt refused to allow them in," Ben Menachem said.
As for Sinwar, Ben Menachem says, "he wants to 'upgrade.'"
"He [Sinwar] controls the Strip, and the military wing [of Hamas] supports him, which is important. In addition, the fact that he allowed only the Qatari envoy to make a breakthrough in talks with Israel for the latest ceasefire proves what his goal ahead of the election is. Settling on a ceasefire in Gaza, without informing Haniyeh, was designed to show [Haniyeh] who is in charge."
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Dr. Michael Barak, a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, told Israel Hayom that Hamas' decision-making includes considerations other than Iran, such as money from Qatar and Egypt."
"For their own purposes, Hamas is taking care to send envoys all along the Shiite terrorist axis, and just like they have a permanent envoy in Beirut, they have one in Yemen to coordinate with the Houthi rebels," Barak said.
Barak says that by visiting Beirut, Haniyeh wanted to leave an opening both for himself and for a third war between Lebanon and Israel, in which Nasrallah might want to enlist Hamas as a wary of forcing the IDF to fight on two fronts, and even "exhaust" Israel on the southern front
Barak adds that it is possible that Haniyeh was trying to reach an agreement with the Iranians about the activity of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, considered to closest to Iran of all the Palestinian terrorist organizations, after "the escalation following the targeted killing of Baha Abu-Atta [last November] created tension between Hamas and the PIJ."
