Report: Qassam Brigades chooses to side with Hezbollah and Iran after all

Al Quds al Arabi, the London-based pan-Arab newspaper, reports that the "military wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, has decided to re-align itself with Hezbollah and Iran after bitter infighting over the direction the group should take.

Iran has made no secret of its displeasure at Hamas public statements against the Assad regime in Syria.

Apparently, the recent visit to Gaza by popular preacher Yusuf Qaradawi, where he said that he wanted the West to support the Syrian rebels, upset the militant Hamas leadership.

The report says that Brigades wrote a letter to the political leadership of Hamas demanding an alliance with Hezbollah. In the letter, the Qassam leadership stated that liberation will come from arms, not money, a reference to the cash that Qatar has been giving Gaza.

Mahmoud al Zahar, hawkish Hamas leader, apparently supports this initiative.

The Al Quds sources hinted that a Hamas delegation is currently visiting Iran, including Marwan Issa, the commander of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, in the framework of strengthening the alliance between the movement and Iran.

The message stressed by the delegation is that the "resistance" and the ability to fire rockets into Tel Aviv in the recent war was thanks to the alliance with Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah, and not because of Arab money, referring to the financial support of Qatar.