SIDON, LEBANON– An Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed 13 people and wounded several others, state media and government officials said. It was the deadliest strike on Lebanon since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war a year ago.
Details of the Strike
The drone strike hit a car in the parking lot of a mosque in the Ein El-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, according to the state-run National News Agency. The Lebanese Health Ministry confirmed that 13 people were killed and several others wounded, without providing further details.
Hamas fighters in the area prevented journalists from reaching the scene, as ambulances rushed to evacuate the wounded and the dead.
Israeli Military Statement
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas training compound that was being used to prepare an attack against Israel and its army. It added that the Israeli army would continue to act against Hamas wherever the group operates.
Hamas condemned the attack in a statement, saying the strike hit a sports playground and denying that it was a training compound.
Background of Airstrikes in Lebanon
Over the past two years, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed scores of officials from the militant Hezbollah group as well as Palestinian factions such as Hamas.
Saleh Arouri, the deputy political head of Hamas and a founder of the group’s military wing, was killed in a drone strike on a southern suburb of Beirut on January 2, 2024. Several other Hamas officials have been killed in strikes since then.
Wider Conflict Context
Hamas led the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. That attack sparked Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip, which killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
A day after the Israel-Hamas war began, Hezbollah started firing rockets toward Israeli posts along the border. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict that turned into a full-blown war in late September 2024.
That war, the most recent of several conflicts involving Hezbollah over the past four decades, killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated $11 billion worth of destruction, according to the World Bank. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers.
Ceasefire and Continued Strikes
The war ended in late November 2024 with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Since then, Israel has carried out scores of airstrikes in Lebanon, saying that Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its capabilities.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry has reported more than 270 people killed and around 850 wounded by Israeli military actions since the ceasefire.
