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The Israeli military carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon Wednesday on what it said was Hezbollah infrastructure after a drone strike earlier in the day killed one person and wounded several others, including students on a bus.
The new wave of strikes came as tensions between Israel and militants are escalating. An airstrike Tuesday night killed 13 people in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh, the deadliest of Israeli attacks since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war a year ago.
The Israeli military warned Wednesday afternoon it would strike targets in several villages in southern Lebanon, describing them as Hezbollah infrastructure, and called on people to move away from the locations.
More than an hour later, the strikes began in the villages of Shehour and Deir Kifa. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Israel's military said Hezbollah was working to re-establish itself and rebuild its capacity in southern Lebanon, without providing evidence. It said the weapons' facilities targeted were embedded among civilians and violated understandings between Israel and Lebanon.
Israel agreed to a ceasefire and withdrawal from southern Lebanon last year, and Lebanon agreed to quell Hezbollah activity in the area.
The drone strike earlier Wednesday in the village of Tiri, in southern Lebanon, hit a car and killed one person and wounded 11, including students aboard a nearby bus, the Lebanese Health Ministry and state media said.
WATCH | 13 people killed in Israeli strike on Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon:An Israeli strike on the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon killed 13 people and wounded several others, the Lebanese Health Ministry said Wednesday. The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants who it said were operating in a training compound there. Hamas said the strike targeted an open sports field used by residents of the camp.State-run National News Agency said a school bus with students happened to be passing near. The bus driver and several students were wounded, the report said.
The identity of the person who died in the car wasn't immediately clear. The Israeli military later said it killed a Hezbollah operative in the strike.
In the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, just outside the port city of Sidon, life appeared normal Wednesday but Lebanese authorities prevented journalists from entering.
At the scene of the strike there, paramedics searched for human remains around a wall that was stained with blood. Several cars were burnt and broken glass and debris littered the ground.
An emergency responder searches for remains in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on the Ain al-Hilweh camp for Palestinian refugees, near Sidon, Lebanon, on Wednesday. Thirteen people were killed and several others wounded. (Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP via Getty Images)On Tuesday night, the Israeli military said it struck a Hamas training compound that was being used to prepare an attack against Israel and its army. It added that the Israeli army would continue to act against Hamas wherever it operates.
Hamas condemned the attack and denied in a statement that the sports playground that was hit was its training compound.
Palestinian factions in Lebanon's 12 refugee camps earlier this year began handing over their weapons to the Lebanese state.
The government has said that it will also work on disarming Hezbollah, but Hezbollah has rejected it as long as Israel continues to occupy several hills along the border and carries out almost-daily strikes.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel, after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Israel launched a widespread bombardment of Lebanon two months ago that severely weakened Hezbollah, followed by a ground invasion.
That war, the most recent of several conflicts involving Hezbollah over the past four decades, killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated $11 billion US worth of destruction, according to the World Bank. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers.