13 dead in Israeli strike on Palestinian camp - Lebanon

Lebanon said an Israeli strike tonight on a crowded Palestinian refugee camp in the country's south killed at least 13 people, as Israel said it struck a Hamas compound.

The militant group denied it had military installations in Palestinian camps in Lebanon and called Israel's claims "lies".

An AFP correspondent saw firefighters putting out a blaze on the lower floor of a stricken building, as gunmen fired shots to clear crowds from the path of ambulances that were streaming into Ain al-Helweh, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, located on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon.

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

Israel usually says it is targeting operatives or sites belonging to the Iran-backed Hezbollah but it has also struck Hamas operatives in Lebanon.

Lebanon's health ministry reported "13 dead and a number of others wounded" in the strike, adding that "ambulances are still transporting more wounded to nearby hospitals".

The state-run National News Agency said the strike targeted a car in a parking lot 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 AFP correspondent did not see any damage to the mosque.

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".

But Hamas, blaming Israel for a "brutal assault" on the Ain al-Helweh camp, said in a statement that "claims that the targeted location was a 'training compound affiliated with the movement' are pure fabrications and lies".

"There are no military installations in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon," it added.

The Israeli military released a video of a strike hitting a building, but Hamas claimed that "the targeted site was an open sports field frequented by the youth of the camp", and that "those targeted were a group of young boys" on the field at the time.