Thirteen people were killed on Tuesday in an Israeli military attack on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.
The ministry added that several other people were injured in the attack on the Ain al-Hilweh camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, and that ambulances were still transporting people to nearby hospitals for treatment. Residents were urged to donate blood.
The state news agency said the drone targeted a car near the Khalid bin al-Walid Mosque in the camp. Three missiles then targeted both the mosque and the nearby Khalid bin al-Walid Centre.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the attack targeted a “Hamas training facility” used to “plan and carry out terrorist attacks against the IDF and the state of Israel.”
“IDF is active against the Hamas establishment in Lebanon and will continue to work wherever Hamas terrorists operate.”
The local wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Sidon condemned the strike.
Israel previously said it would attack the camp in October 2024, targeting the Palestinian militant group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The camp was one of the camps disarmed by the Lebanese government after the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the camp’s original inhabitants arrived in 1948 “mostly from Palestinian towns on the coast.” Since then, Palestinian refugees from other parts of Lebanon have also made it their home.
For more than two years, Israel has carried out attacks in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah militants and various Palestinian armed groups.
The escalation began after the Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel in support of Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, during which the insurgents killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages.
Israel’s response sparked a devastating war in Gaza, with the Gaza Ministry of Health saying more than 69,000 people, mostly women and children, had been killed.
CNN’s Abeer Salman and Zeena Saifi contributed to this report.
