Israeli airstrike hits football pitch at Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp — 13 killed including up to 11 children

The Strike

On November 18, 2025, an Israeli airstrike hit Ein el-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, located near the southern city of Sidon. The target struck was an open football pitch where youth were playing.

Thirteen people were killed. Between 8 and 11 of the dead were children. At least 6 more were injured.

Claimed vs. Actual Target

The IDF stated the strike targeted a “Hamas training compound.”

The UN investigated and reached a different conclusion: “All fatalities we documented were civilians, raising serious concerns.” The target was an open-air sports field. The dead were children playing football.

This incident is marked as contested because the IDF maintains its characterization of the target, while the UN’s on-the-ground documentation found only civilian casualties at a civilian location. The physical evidence — an open football pitch, dead children — supports the UN finding.

Context

The strike occurred during the ceasefire period that followed the November 2024 agreement. Despite the nominal ceasefire, Israel conducted what Amnesty International described as “near-daily strikes” in Lebanon throughout 2025. By November 2025, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported 331 people killed during the ceasefire period, with the UN independently verifying 127 of them as civilians.

Ein el-Hilweh is a Palestinian refugee camp that has existed since 1948. Its population — estimated at over 50,000 — are refugees and descendants of refugees from the 1948 and 1967 wars. Striking a refugee camp’s sports field and killing children playing football, then describing the target as a military training compound, is a pattern that UN investigators, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International have documented across multiple incidents in both the Lebanon and Gaza theaters.