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Ambulances take casualties from the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon to a hospital on Tuesday, November 18, 2025. (Mohammad Zaatari/AP via CNN Newsource)
By Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN
(CNN) — An Israeli strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon killed 13 people on Tuesday, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Several others were injured by the strike on the Ain al-Hilweh camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, the ministry said, adding that ambulances were still taking people to nearby hospitals for treatment. It urged residents to donate blood.
The state-run National News Agency said a drone had targeted a car near the Khalid bin Al-Walid Mosque inside the camp. Subsequently, three missiles targeted both the mosque and the nearby Khalid bin Al-Walid Center.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike had targeted “a Hamas training compound” that was being used to “plan and carry out terrorist attacks against the IDF and the State of Israel.”
“The IDF is operating against Hamas’ establishment in Lebanon and will continue to operate against Hamas terrorists wherever they operate,” it said.
Local factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Sidon condemned the strike.
Israel previously struck the camp in October 2024, when it said it was targeting the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a Palestinian militant organization. The camp was among those disarmed by the Lebanese government following the Israel–Hezbollah ceasefire in November 2024.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the camp’s original inhabitants arrived in 1948 “mostly from coastal Palestinian towns.” Since then, Palestinian refugees displaced from other parts of Lebanon have also made it their home.
For more than two years, Israel has carried out strikes in Lebanon targeting militants from Hezbollah as well as various Palestinian militant factions.
The escalation began after Iran-backed Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel in support of Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, during which militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages.
Israel’s response triggered a devastating war in Gaza, where the Gaza health ministry says more than 69,000 people – most of them women and children – have been killed.
CNN ‘s Abeer Salman and Zeena Saifi contributed to this report.
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