Lebanon says 13 dead in Israeli strike on Palestinian refugee camp

LAST UPDATE | 10 hrs ago

LEBANON SAID AN Israeli strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in the country’s south killed at least 13 people today in an updated toll, as Israel said it struck a Hamas compound.

Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon despite a ceasefire agreed last November that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah – an ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas – including two months of full-blown war.

Israel usually says it is targeting operatives or sites belonging to Hezbollah but it has also struck Hamas operatives in Lebanon, both during the hostilities and since the ceasefire.

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In an updated toll, the health ministry reported “13 dead and a number of others wounded” in the strike in the Ain al-Helweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the city of Sidon, adding that “ambulances are still transporting more wounded to nearby hospitals”.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the strike targeted a car near the Khalid bin al-Walid mosque and that “subsequently it was reported that the raid also targeted” the mosque itself and a centre of the same name.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it “struck terrorists who operated in a Hamas training compound in the Ain al-Helweh area in southern Lebanon”, adding that it was “operating against Hamas’s establishment in Lebanon”.

Earlier on Tuesday, Lebanon said Israeli strikes on cars elsewhere in the country’s south killed two people.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request from news agency AFP for comment on those raids.