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 ceasef
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