Israel conducted its deadliest attack on Lebanon in a year on Tuesday evening, killing 13 people and wounding others in a series of airstrikes on the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry reported that ambulances continued to evacuate casualties well into the night because of the “intensity of the shelling.” Ain Al-Hilweh, on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon and home to tens of thousands of residents.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said an Israeli drone first struck a car near the Khaled bin Al-Walid Mosque, igniting fires at the scene. It reported that additional drones later hit the Khaled bin Al-Walid Center and the same mosque with three more missiles, while Israeli aircraft flew at low altitude over the camp.
In a brief statement posted on X, the Israeli army said it had “struck terrorists operating in a Hamas training compound in the Ain Al-Hilweh area in southern Lebanon,” claiming the site was used for “training and exercises in order to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel.”
Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, repeated this account in posts on X, framing the strikes as part of broader operations against armed groups along Israel’s northern frontier.
Hamas Rejects Israeli Claims
Hamas swiftly denied Israel’s account. In a statement on Telegram, the group described the claim of striking a Hamas training facility as "sheer lies, aimed at justifying Israel's criminal aggression and inciting against the refugee camps and our Palestinian people." The group said the missiles hit an open sports field used daily by boys and teenagers. It reiterated that "there are no military facilities in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon."
Strikes extend across southern Lebanon
The attacks on Ain Al-Hilweh were part of a wider escalation. The Lebanese Health Ministry said two more people were killed and several others wounded in three separate Israeli strikes on the southern areas of Bint Jbeil, Blida and Tayri.
According to the ministry a drone strike on a car in Bint Jbeil killed an employee of the Union of Municipalities. A second strike in Blida killed another civilian, while in Tayri, several schoolchildren were wounded Wednesday morning after a drone fired two missiles at a school bus.
In its own statements, the Israeli military said it had “eliminated” two Hezbollah members in Bint Jbeil and Blida, describing one as involved in rebuilding Hezbollah’s military capabilities and the other as gathering intelligence on Israeli troops. The army said their actions violated understandings between Israel and Lebanon.
Israel maintains control over five positions inside Lebanese territory and carries out periodic airstrikes in the south, which it says target Iran-backed Hezbollah and alleged Hamas operatives.
The latest attacks come despite a ceasefire agreement reached last year, which required Israel to partially withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah’s commitment to disarm in the area. Israeli officials accuse Hezbollah of trying to rebuild military positions in the south, saying such efforts justify ongoing strikes.
Tuesday’s attack marks the deadliest escalation since that agreement, raising renewed concerns about the fragility of the truce and the risk of a broader confrontation along the Lebanon–Israel border.
