SIDON: An Israeli strike on Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp killed six persons on Friday, state media reported, with the Israeli army saying it had targeted fighters from Hamas.

The official National News Agency said “an Israeli drone” targeted a neighbourhood of the Ain al Helweh camp, which is located on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon.

It reported that six persons were killed and an unspecified number wounded. Eyewitnesses saw smoke rising from a building in the densely populated camp as ambulances headed to the scene. The Israeli army said in a statement that its forces “struck a Hamas command centre from which terrorists operated”.

Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon despite a Nov 2024 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah.

Israel has also struck targets belonging to Hezbollah’s ally Hamas, including in a raid on Ain al Helweh last November that killed 13 people.

The UN rights office had said 11 children were killed in that strike.

In Oct 2023, Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel in support of Hamas at the outset of the Gaza conflict, triggering months of exchanges that culminated in two months of all-out war in Lebanon. On Sunday, Lebanon said an Israeli strike near the Syrian border in the country’s east killed four people.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2026