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BEIRUT (Reuters) -An Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese city of Sidon killed 13 people and wounded several others, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
The Israeli military said that it struck militants who it said were operating in a training compound in the crowded Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon.
The military said the compound has been used by the Palestinian movement Hamas to carry out attacks against Israel.
Hamas condemned the strike in a later statement. “The claims and allegations of the Zionist occupation army that the targeted location is a “training compound belonging to the movement” are pure fabrication and lies, aimed at justifying its criminal aggression,” it said.
It said the strike targeted an open sports field used by residents of the camp, adding that there are no military establishments in refugee camps in Lebanon.
The Israeli military occupies five posts within Lebanon and frequently carries out airstrikes in the country’s south that it says are targeting Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah or sometimes Hamas members.
Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire last year that required the Lebanese militant group not to have any weapons in the south and for Israeli forces to fully withdraw from Lebanon.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam, Jaidaa Taha, Nidal Al Mughrabi and Muhammad Al Gebaly; Editing by Leslie Adler and Nick Zieminski)
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