Israel: Hizballah 'stopped Hamas from building military base in Lebanon'

Israel’s Maariv newspaper cited intelligence commentator Yossi Melman who claimed the failed assassination attempt against Hamas official Mohammed Hamdan while in Sidon "inspired the movement to build a military base in southern Lebanon to fire rockets at Israel without Hizballah’s knowledge."

"Hizballah leaders were angry at Hamas' attempts to fear that any escalation from the south would drag the party into a military confrontation with Israel,” Melman said.

The New Arab spoke to a Hizballah’s media relations officer who refused to comment on the matter and Hamas officials in Lebanon were not available for comment.

Hamdan was wounded in a car bomb blast in January in southern Lebanon on Sunday.

"A bomb placed in a BMW in Sidon detonated, wounding Hamas official Mohammed Hamdan," a military source said at the time.

Images posted on social media and used by Lebanese TV show a mangled car, a large fire and black smoke rising above the city.

A medical source at the scene said Hamdan suffered serious wounds to his legs while opening the door to his car, and was transported to hospital. 

Lebanon’s interior ministry said upon further investigation that Israel was involved in Hamdan’s assassination attempt.