Lebanese group sues Hamas for 'launching rockets at Israel'

A right-wing political group known as the Sovereign Front for Lebanon has filed a complaint in a Lebanese court against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, over the firing of rockets from South Lebanon into Israel earlier this month. 

The Sovereign Front for Lebanon is a group of mainly Christian politicians and activists who oppose the presence of Hezbollah and other Iran-allied groups in Lebanon.

This is the first case to be brought against Hamas in Lebanon.

The group said it rejected the "11 military bases outside the Palestinian camps, belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command", which it claims extends from the south of Beirut to Qusaya on the Syrian borders, Asharq Al-Awsat reported. 

"The most dangerous of these military bases is the Naameh base, which overlooks Beirut International Airport, the Beirut-South Highway, the Shouf Road, and others, and includes military tunnels and warehouses for weapons and missiles," the group added. 

Elie Mahfoud, a lawyer and member for the Sovereign Front for Lebanon told Asharq Al-Awsat: "What we have done is a formal but legal step. It serves as a legal cry that the Lebanese people and … countries interested in Lebanese affairs must hear, that there are those who seek to turn Lebanon into a military base."

Tensions have run high in southern Lebanon since 34 rockets were fired from Lebanese territory into Israel on 6 April. Israeli forces in response fired at targets in the Rashidieh refugee camp in southern Lebanon. 

No group took responsibility for the attack, although an unnamed source in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) told The New Arab that the rockets were fired by Palestinian groups as revenge for an earlier Israeli raid at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which resulted in the detention and injury of hundreds of people.