An Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese city of Sidon killed 13 people and wounded several others, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Tuesday. The Israeli military said that it struck militants who it said were operating in a training compound in the crowded Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon.
What Happened?
A drone strike hit a car in the parking area of a mosque inside the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon, according to the National News Agency. The Lebanese Health Ministry said 13 people were killed and several others were injured. Hamas fighters blocked journalists from reaching the site as ambulances worked to evacuate the wounded and the dead. The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hamas training compound that was being used to prepare an attack on Israel and stated that it would continue to act against Hamas wherever the group operates.
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon
In the past two years, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed many members of Hezbollah and Palestinian groups such as Hamas. One of those killed was Saleh Arouri, a senior Hamas leader and founder of its military wing, who died in a drone strike in a Beirut suburb on January 2, 2024. Several other Hamas officials have also been targeted since then. Hamas carried out the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, which led to Israel launching a major offensive in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
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.
