BEIRUT, (The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)
At least 13 Palestinian civilians were massacred and others were injured in an Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Tuesday evening.
The drone strike reportedly hit a parking lot of a mosque in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, according to the Lebanese state-run National News Agency.
Other news reports said the strike targeted a soccer field near the mosque.
At least four people were also wounded in the attack, the Lebanese health ministry said, adding that “ambulances transported the victims to nearby hospitals.
The Israeli occupation regime justified the massacre by claiming it attacked members of the Hamas Movement who were operating in a training compound in the refugee camp.
Hamas categorically denied the Israeli claim, calling it a “fabrication” and affirming that the Movement does not have training facilities in Lebanon’s refugee camps.
“The Zionist attack was a barbaric aggression against our innocent Palestinian people as well as Lebanon’s sovereignty,” it said in a statement.
Sources from the Movement said that “Israel targeted a mini soccer field well known to residents of Ein al-Hilweh refugee camp, which is usually crowded at this time.”
The Movement denied that a senior Hamas figure was targeted, stressing that those killed were residents of the camp, saying the victims were young men and children.
“This Israeli army’s airstrike is part of Israel’s ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, and part of its repeated attacks on Lebanese territory,” Hamas said.
Hamas warned of Israeli attempts to widen the scope of its aggression and destabilize the region.
