Individuals gathering subsequent of ambulances outdoors a hospital the place they introduced the victims of the Israeli strike that hit the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp within the southern port metropolis of Sidon, Lebanon, on Tuesday.
Mohammad Zaatari/AP
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Mohammad Zaatari/AP
SIDON, Lebanon — An Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed 13 individuals and wounded a number of others, state media and authorities officers stated. It was the deadliest strike on Lebanon since a ceasefire within the Israel-Hezbollah battle a 12 months in the past.
The drone strike hit a automotive within the car parking zone of a mosque within the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal metropolis of Sidon, the state-run Nationwide Information Company stated. The Lebanese Well being Ministry stated 13 individuals have been killed and several other others wounded within the airstrike, with out giving additional particulars.
Hamas fighters within the space prevented journalists from reaching the scene, as ambulances rushed to evacuate the wounded and the lifeless.
The Israeli army stated it struck a Hamas coaching compound that was getting used to organize an assault in opposition to Israel and its military. It added that the Israeli military would proceed to behave in opposition to Hamas wherever the group operates.
Hamas condemned the assault in a press release saying the strike hit a sports activities playground and denying that it was a coaching compound.
Over the previous two years, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed scores of officers from the militant Hezbollah group in addition to Palestinian factions equivalent to Hamas.
Saleh Arouri, the deputy political head of Hamas and a founding father of the group’s army wing, was killed in a drone strike on a southern suburb of Beirut on Jan. 2, 2024. A number of different Hamas officers have been killed in strikes since then.
Hamas led the Oct. 7, 2023 assault on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 individuals. That sparked Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip that killed tens of 1000’s of Palestinians, in keeping with the Gaza Well being Ministry.
A day after the Israel-Hamas battle began, Hezbollah started firing rockets towards Israeli posts alongside the border. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the 2 sides turned locked in an escalating battle that turned a full-blown battle in late September 2024.
That battle, the latest of a number of conflicts involving Hezbollah over the previous 4 a long time, killed greater than 4,000 individuals in Lebanon, together with tons of of civilians, and triggered an estimated $11 billion value of destruction, in keeping with the World Financial institution. In Israel, 127 individuals died, together with 80 troopers.
The battle resulted 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 making an attempt to rebuild its capabilities.
Lebanon’s Well being Ministry has reported greater than 270 individuals killed and round 850 wounded by Israeli army actions because the ceasefire.
