Vice PM: Hezbollah agents infiltrated Gaza to train militants

Members of Lebanon's Hezbollah Islamist group have agents in the Gaza Strip to train Palestinian militants, Vice Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Thursday.

Gaza is ruled by the Hamas militant group, which, like Hezbollah, is sworn to Israel's destruction.

Yaalon, who is the former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, told reporters that Hezbollah experts can get into the Gaza Strip, the same way that Iranian rockets get into the Strip. He said Hezbollah militants can go from Lebanon to Sudan, then to Egypt and on to Gaza.

Israel charges that Iran sends rockets and other weapons to Gaza militants, smuggling them into the seaside strip through tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.

	Hezbollah fighters parade during the inauguration of a cemetery for fighters who died while fighting Israel, in southern Beirut on Nov. 12, 2010.
	Photo by: AP

Yaalon said Hezbollah has a special unit, called 1800, to deal with the Palestinian militants. He said the Lebanese guerrillas also operate in the West Bank, paying militants.

Yaalon offered no evidence to support his claims.

Israel has long accused Hezbollah and its Iranian backers of supporting
Palestinian militants, but officials have said little about an actual physical presence of Iranian-backed militia in Gaza.

Hamas has often denied that foreign forces are in Gaza. On Thursday, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called Yaalon's claim fabricated, and said all the factions in Gaza are Palestinians.

Yaalon's office said Hezbollah has been infiltrating Gaza quietly since Israel withdrew in from the seaside strip in 2005.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a bitter month-long war in 2006, when Hezbollah rained almost 4,000 rockets on Israel as IDF forces caused widespread destruction in Beirut and south Lebanon. A year later, Israel launched a punishing war in Gaza to try to put a stop to daily rocket attacks by Gaza militants.