The leader of Hezbollah has met with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures to discuss their aim of achieving a “real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine”, the Lebanese militant group has said.

The meeting comes as fears grow the war between Israel and Hamas could spiral into a wider regional conflict.

Israel is widely expected to carry out a ground invasion of Gaza as part of its response to Hamas’s deadly incursion on 7 October, with military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner calling on the world to “rally around Israel” and recognise Hamas needed to be eliminated to “set the people of Gaza free”.

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Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy leader of Hamas, and Ziad al-Nakhleh, leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, were joined by other Iran-backed militants in Beirut as they discussed the next steps they want to take at this “sensitive stage”.

In a statement that was carried on Hezbollah-run and Lebanese state media, the leaders were said to have discussed how to achieve “a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine” and halt Israel’s “treacherous and brutal aggression against our oppressed and steadfast people in Gaza and the West Bank”.

No other details were provided.

Mr Nasrallah has yet to publicly speak about the war in Gaza and clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border. However, other Hezbollah top officials have warned Israel against its planned ground invasion into the besieged territory.

Meanwhile, Lt Col Lerner told Sky News Israel’s military would launch “damning strikes” against any militant group that tries to take advantage of the conflict by attacking Israel on another front.

He warned any such group to “think carefully”.

His remarks come after eight Syrian military personnel were killed in an Israeli airstrike on positions in the southwest of Syria.

The reports in Syrian state media say a further seven people were wounded.

Lt Col Lerner has said Israel sees its entire northern border with Lebanon and Syrian territory as “one large front”.

“Hezbollah has been aggravating the situation on the northern front with Lebanon, and there is a concern the northern front in itself from Syria, all the way across to Lebanon, will increase its hostility towards Israel,” he said.

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Tensions have been rising along the Lebanon-Israel border, where Hezbollah members have been exchanging fire with Israeli troops since the day after Hamas’s surprise incursion.

For now, those exchanges remain limited to a handful of border towns and Hezbollah and Israeli military positions on both sides.

Lebanese army soldiers and United Nations peacekeeping forces have deployed in large numbers.

Dozens of Hezbollah fighters have been killed in the clashes so far, the group says, while the Israeli military has also announced some deaths among its ranks.

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Israeli officials have said they would retaliate aggressively in case of a cross-border attack by Hezbollah from Lebanon.

“We will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine, and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state (will be) devastating,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said while visiting Israeli troops along the border with Lebanon on Sunday.

Lebanon’s cash-strapped caretaker government, along with regional and international figures, has been scrambling to keep the country out of the war.

Hezbollah and Israel fought a month-long war in 2006 that ended in a tense stalemate.

Israel sees Iran-backed Hezbollah as its most serious threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel.

Ground invasion expected

Questioned on whether the Israeli military was ready for a ground incursion of Gaza, Lt Col Lerner said the military was “making necessary preparations” and there was “ongoing preparedness” for the operation.

“With every day that goes by, we are getting more information, more intelligence,” he said.

The conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants is now in its third week after Hamas’s deadly incursion left more 1,400 people in Israel dead, official Israeli sources have said.

More than 5,700 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the territory.

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