Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon kills 13
people, Lebanese ministry says
[November 19, 2025]
By MOHAMMAD ZAATARI
SIDON, Lebanon (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp
in southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed 13 people and wounded several
others, state media and government officials said. It was the deadliest
strike on Lebanon since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war a year
ago.
The drone strike hit a car in the parking lot of a mosque in the Ein el-Hilweh
refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, the
state-run National News Agency said. The Lebanese Health Ministry said
13 people were killed and several others wounded in the airstrike,
without giving further details.
Hamas fighters in the area prevented journalists from reaching the
scene, as ambulances rushed to evacuate the wounded and the dead.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas training compound that was
being used to prepare an attack against Israel and its army. It added
that the Israeli army would continue to act against Hamas wherever the
group operates.
Hamas condemned the attack in a statement saying the strike hit a sports
playground and denying that it was a training compound.
Over the past two years, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed
scores of officials from the militant Hezbollah group as well as
Palestinian factions such as Hamas.
Saleh Arouri, the deputy political head of Hamas and a founder of the
group’s military wing, was killed in a drone strike on a southern suburb
of Beirut on Jan. 2, 2024. Several other Hamas officials have been
killed in strikes since then.
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People gathering next of ambulances outside a hospital where they
brought the victims of the Israeli strike that hit the Ein el-Hilweh
refugee camp in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday,
Nov. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Hamas led the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed
about 1,200 people. That sparked Israel's offensive on the Gaza
Strip that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, according to
the Gaza Health Ministry.
A day after the Israel-Hamas war started, Hezbollah began firing
rockets toward Israeli posts along the border. Israel responded with
shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked
in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war in late
September 2024.
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.
The war ended in late November 2024 with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
Since then, Israel has carried out scores of airstrikes in Lebanon,
saying that Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its capabilities.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry has reported more than 270 people killed
and around 850 wounded by Israeli military actions since the
ceasefire.
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