Syrian authorities made a rare arrest of two senior members of the Palestinian armed faction Islamic Jihad, the group said on Tuesday, a move that signaled the shifting of alliances in the Middle East.

The group, Islamic Jihad, is an Iran-backed ally of Hamas that took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel from Gaza, which triggered the war there. The group said on Tuesday that Khaled Khaled, its leader in Syria, and Yasser al-Zafari, another senior figure, had been in Syrian custody for five days.

Syria’s interior ministry confirmed their detention, but provided no reason for their arrest. Islamic Jihad said the two officials had been detained “without any explanation” and “in a manner we would not have hoped to see from brothers.”

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