GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip ? When the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah launched a cross-border raid Wednesday and captured two Israeli soldiers, barely two weeks after Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip had done virtually the same thing, Gaza accountant Mohammed Abu Asen saw the events as “completely connected” and a cause for celebration.

But according to Asen and many others here, the notion that Hezbollah and Hamas had coordinated their separate abductions, despite the similarities, is far-fetched.

U.S. and Israeli officials have publicly charged – without offering direct evidence – that Iran and Syria had a hand in the operations. A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States had intelligence that Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah traveled from Beirut to Damascus to visit Hamas political chief Khaled Mashal shortly before Wednesday’s Hezbollah raid, suggesting the operations were linked.

Jointly planned or not, the capture of three Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah and Hamas – both labeled as terrorist organizations by Israel and the United States – has thrown the groups together in a way that hasn’t happened since 1992, when more than 400 Hamas activists were deported by Israel to southern Lebanon. It was there, in refugee camps, that some Hamas members honed their bombmaking skills with the help of Hezbollah experts, according to Israeli intelligence sources.

Now, both groups say they want to trade the Israeli soldiers they are holding for their supporters held in Israeli prisons.

Israel is refusing a prisoner swap, saying it would be a bad precedent. Instead, Israel invaded and reoccupied parts of Gaza and launched one of the largest military operations in Lebanon since its 1982 invasion. Gideon Meir, a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official, said “it was a well-coordinated operation” between Hezbollah and Hamas.

“How come it happened in two places simultaneously?” he said.

Palestinian government spokesman Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas, denied any connections.