According to Israeli sources, the Islamist group Hamas is said to have planned the attack from Lebanon. The army targeted a suspected training center – according to the Lebanese authorities, 13 people were killed.
According to authorities, 13 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Palestinian refugee settlements in southern Lebanon. The Health Ministry in Beirut said more people were injured in the attack in Ain al-Hilwah near the coastal city of Sidon. According to media reports, a drone crashed into a car in the parking lot of a mosque in Aif al-Hilweh.
The Israeli military said it targeted a training center run by the Islamist group Hamas that was being used to prepare attacks on Israeli soldiers. The attack was aimed at “terrorists,” he said in a statement. According to reports, the attack may have targeted a meeting of leaders of Palestinian terrorist organizations.
Several Hamas attacks from Lebanon
After the outbreak of the Gaza War through its terrorist attacks against Israel in October 2023, Hamas carried out several attacks against Israel from Lebanon. Israel responded with airstrikes that killed senior Hamas officials in Lebanon, including Saleh al-Aruri, Hamas’ second highest-ranking official abroad.
Ain al-Hilwah in the south of the country is the largest Palestinian refugee settlement in Lebanon with around 80,000 inhabitants. Most of the population are refugees from the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948 and their descendants. Other Palestinian residents fled there during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). In recent years, Palestinians from Syria have also arrived because of the civil war there.
An Israeli was killed in the West Bank
Meanwhile, according to the Israeli army, an Israeli citizen was killed and three other people were injured in an attack by armed Palestinians in the West Bank. According to the Israeli rescue service, the dead man was a 71-year-old resident of the Kiriat Arba settlement.
The incident reportedly occurred at the Gush Etzion crossing between Hebron and Bethlehem in the southern West Bank. A military statement said soldiers “eliminated two terrorists at the scene.” “Explosive devices were found” in the car of both attackers. The Islamist group Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad praised the attacks on Israeli civilians.
