The Israeli army on Friday said a strike on a football pitch in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon that killed 13 young men and boys was an attack on “Hamas terrorists”.
“Thirteen Hamas terrorists were eliminated in a precise ... strike targeting the organisation's training compound in southern Lebanon,” the Israeli army said.
It added that one of those killed was “Jawad Sidawi, who was involved in training terrorists in order to carry out terror attacks from Lebanese territory” against Israel and its troops.
Hamas denounced Tuesday's strike in Ain Al Hilweh as a “horrific massacre that caused the deaths of several innocent civilian martyrs”.
Pictures published by the Palestinian militant group show 13 young men and boys, some of them members of a Hamas-run boy scout group, identifiable by their uniforms and neckerchiefs.
Many scouts attended the funeral procession on Thursday, carrying pictures of their comrades. Fadi Salameh, the administrative director of Hamshari Hospital near Ain Al Hilweh, told The National that most of the casualties were between 16 and 24 years old.
Tuesday’s attack was one of the deadliest strikes on Lebanon since a US-brokered ceasefire ended 13 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in November last year.
Residents and families of the victims who came to pay their respects on Thursday told The National that the young men and boys had been playing football when the strike occurred. The attacked centre is near the Khalid ibn Al Walid mosque, where Hamas is known to have a presence.
But residents said the field was part of a recreation centre open to all, where young men would socialise, and not a military “training compound”. They denied it had any political affiliation.
Many Palestinian youths in Lebanon’s refugee camps are affiliated with movements tied to Palestinian factions that offer cultural and religious activities that are neither armed nor militarised, residents and former scouts told The National.
Palestinian factions play an important social, security and political role inside refugee camps in Lebanon. Because the Lebanese army does not enter the camps, they are the ones who ensure internal security.
Israel has been increasing its strikes on Lebanon in the past weeks, breaching the ceasefire several times, and warning it would escalate further if Hezbollah and other armed groups refuse to fully disarm.
Under the ceasefire’s terms, all non-state armed groups in Lebanon are required to disarm, while Israel is supposed to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon and stop violating Lebanese airspace.
Experts told The National that the latest strike is a message to Lebanon to speed up the disarmament of armed groups.
“It’s Israel keeping Lebanon under the knife, saying: ‘You have until the end of the year, and this is just a taste of what’s coming if Hezbollah isn’t fully disarmed,’" political analyst Karim El Mufti said.
While pushing Beirut on the disarmament of armed groups, Israel has remained in five points inside Lebanese territory and operates freely in two buffer areas within the country’s south.
Earlier this week, Israel built a wall that covers 4,000 square metres of land inside Lebanon.
