UPDATE 3 – 2 killed in Israeli drone strike on Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Mohammad Sio

ISTANBUL (AA) – Two people were killed, and three others were injured in an Israeli drone strike on the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Friday, in the latest violation of a 2024 ceasefire deal, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported that the strike hit the Hittin neighborhood inside the densely populated camp, located near the southern city of Sidon.

The airstrike caused material damage to the targeted building and surrounding structures.

The Palestinian Red Crescent in the Ain al-Hilweh camp said in a statement that two people were killed and three others injured in the attack.

Ambulances immediately arrived at the scene and transported the injured to hospitals in Sidon, which issued an urgent appeal for blood donations due to the severity of the injuries, NNA said.

The Israeli military claimed in a statement that it struck a Hamas command center in the Ain al-Hilweh area.

The Israeli army carried out a similar strike in November 2025 in the same area, where at least 13 people were killed and several others injured. Later, the army claimed that the attack targeted Hamas members inside the camp. It is alleged that the targeted facility was being used to plot attacks against Israel.

However, Hamas decried the attack as a “brutal assault” on civilians, saying the Israeli strike targeted a group of teenagers on an open sports field.

Israeli warplanes also carried out a wave of intense airstrikes on the eastern and western mountain ranges in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa region, with explosions reverberating across the area, NNA reported.

Three strikes targeted the Shaara area at the foothills of the eastern Lebanon mountain range, and the aircraft continued flying over the skies of Baalbek.

One of the attacks targeted a building near the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Foundation on the Riyaq–Baalbek highway, leveling it to the ground, the NNA said. Israeli warplanes also carried out two additional airstrikes on the plains of the towns of Qasr Naba and Tamnine al-Tahta, west of Baalbek.

The Israeli army claimed that Hezbollah command centers were the target of its latest strikes in Lebanon.

The latest attacks came amid repeated Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement reached in November 2024, killing and wounding hundreds of Lebanese. Israel continues to occupy five Lebanese hilltops seized during the latest war, in addition to other Lebanese areas it has held for decades.