Pro-Hezbollah Newspapers Criticize Hamas for Aleppo Statement

Hamas’ critical reaction to the bloodshed in Aleppo raised the ire of pro-Hezbollah media in Lebanon.

Earlier this week, Hamas, a murderous terrorist group responsible for targeting and killing civilians, released a statement calling on the Arab world and the international community to stop the “massacre of civilians” in the flashpoint Syrian city.

Pro-Hezbollah media in Lebanon in turn harshly criticized Hamas’ statement and its punitive measures against Gazans who celebrated President Bashar Assad’s victory in the long-fought battle.

“Hamas, calm down for the sake of resistance,” a headline in the pro-Hezbollah Al Akhbar newspaper read, with the subheading reporting critically on the arrests and interrogations of pro-Assad Gazans.

“The many tentacles of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab and Islamic world started a coordinated campaign immediately after the Syrian Army recaptured the city of Aleppo,” the report  read. “That campaign included the arrest of public figures and journalists in areas controlled by the Brotherhood.”

“Many people think that Hamas’ jumping on the Muslim Brotherhood’s anti-Syrian bandwagon is a result of regional pressure,” the paper continued. “Be that as it may, the events in Gaza do not detract from the Muslim Brotherhood’s take on what’s going on in Aleppo, which is pretty close to the Salafists’. It is a hostile attitude towards the Syrian government and its allies. Having said that, we do not wish to underappreciate Hamas’ historic role in the resistance.”

In an article entitled “Hamas after the battle of Aleppo,” the staunchly pro-Hezbollah Assafir newspaper’s top commentator Abdullah Zugeib accused the Palestinian militia of founding and training anti-Assad armed groups.

He said that Hamas’ statement marked “a final separation from our past friends. The statement about Aleppo was the last straw.”

He accused Hamas of adopting the rhetoric of the Syrian opposition. “The tone, which was very similar to the one used by opposition groups, is entirely detached from any objective assessment that takes into account the complex reality and the interests of the Palestinians against the backdrop of the pronounced polarization that gripped our region.”

The results of the battle of Aleppo divided Palestinian organizations. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, whose leaders are still based in Damascus, congratulated the Syrian regime on its victory.

In a Gaza ceremony, a spokesperson for the PFLP called it a “great victory,” saying, “the recapture of Aleppo is the beginning of the defeat of an international effort that resents our nation, and the defeat of a reactionary Zionist-imperialist plot.”