At least 13 people were killed today and several others wounded when the Israeli military carried out an airstrike against the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The strike targeted a car in the parking lot of a mosque in the refugee camp, which is the largest Palestinian refugee camp within Lebanon. The identities of the slain are yet to be confirmed, and ambulances are still ferrying victims from the location, so the final toll may continue to rise.
The IDF claimed the airstrike attacked a “Hamas training compound” that was about to carry out a “terrorist operation.” No evidence was provided for this claim, and training compound seems an unlikely euphemism for a car in a mosque parking lot.
Members of the Lebanese army gather at the entrance of Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, following an Israeli strike that killed several people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, in the southern city of Sidon, Lebanon November 18, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Hankir
Ain al-Hilweh is believed to have well over 100,000 refugees within, and has a long history of coming under Israeli attack. Major airstrikes on the camp took place in 1974 and 1982. Most recently, they carried out an attack on the camp in October of 2024, during their invasion of Lebanon.
Israel has been carrying out airstrikes against Lebanese territory on a near-daily basis since the ceasefire went into effect in November of 2024. Those strikes have not generally targeted the refugee camp, though they do often go after any vehicles still operational in the south after last year’s war, presenting them as necessarily belonging to terrorists.
The strike hit the car as well as the Khalid bin al-Walid mosque, suggesting a lot of the death toll were people in and near the mosque, not the car itself that was believed to be the target.
It’s as yet unclear why the refugee camp was targeted, though with the narrative related to targeting Hamas and not Hezbollah, it is likely distinct of the ongoing escalation of the attacks against southern Lebanon, and more related to Israel’s assorted attacks on the Palestinians.
