Lebanon said an Israeli strike on the country’s largest Palestinian refugee camp killed two people on Friday, with the Israel Defense Forces saying it had targeted a Hamas command center.

The official National News Agency said “an Israeli drone” targeted a neighborhood of the Ain al-Helweh camp, which is located on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon.

Lebanon’s health ministry said two people were killed in the raid. The NNA had earlier reported one dead and an unspecified number of wounded.

An AFP correspondent saw smoke rising from a building in the densely populated camp as ambulances headed to the scene.

The IDF said it targeted a Hamas command center in the airstrike in the refugee camp, which it said was being used by the terror group to advance attacks on Israel.

“The command center that was struck had been used in recent months by Hamas terror operatives for preparations for terror activities against IDF troops in Lebanese territory, and included training intended to advance various terror attack plans against IDF troops and the State of Israel,” the military said in a statement, attaching footage of the strike.

The IDF said that the site was embedded “in the heart of a civilian population, cynically exploiting the village’s residents to advance the organization’s terror objectives and using them as human shields.”

According to the military, Hamas’s activities at the command center constituted a violation of the November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

צה"ל תקף מפקדה ממנה פעלו מחבלים מארגון הטרור חמאס בדרום לבנון צה"ל תקף מוקדם יותר היום מפקדה ממנה פעלו מחבלים מארגון הטרור חמאס במרחב עין אל-חלוה שבדרום לבנון. המפקדה שהותקפה שימשה לאורך התקופה האחרונה את מחבלי ארגון הטרור חמאס עבור היערכות לפעולות טרור נגד כוחות צה"ל בשטח… pic.twitter.com/IT5xZbGOAL — צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) February 20, 2026

צה"ל תקף מפקדה ממנה פעלו מחבלים מארגון הטרור חמאס בדרום לבנון

צה"ל תקף מוקדם יותר היום מפקדה ממנה פעלו מחבלים מארגון הטרור חמאס במרחב עין אל-חלוה שבדרום לבנון.

המפקדה שהותקפה שימשה לאורך התקופה האחרונה את מחבלי ארגון הטרור חמאס עבור היערכות לפעולות טרור נגד כוחות צה"ל בשטח… pic.twitter.com/IT5xZbGOAL

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) February 20, 2026

Also on Friday, the IDF said it hit a Hezbollah command center in eastern Lebanon.

The IDF says the command center, near Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley, was used by Hezbollah to advance attacks against Israeli troops and Israel.

The military also accused Hezbollah of embedding its centers in civilian areas, saying that Hezbollah’s activity at the site “constitutes a violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon and a threat against the State of Israel.

Israel has consistently targeted what it says are Hezbollah attempts to rebuild its force following the November 2024 ceasefire that ended a year of conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group.

The US-brokered ceasefire came after two months of open conflict in Lebanon, including an IDF ground operation in the country’s south in a bid to enable the safe return of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by the terror group’s near-daily attacks. The rocket attacks began on October 8, 2023 — a day after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas invaded southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.

Since the ceasefire, the IDF said it has killed over 400 Hezbollah operatives and members of allied terror groups in strikes, hit hundreds of Hezbollah sites, and conducted over 1,200 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon.

Weakened by the war and still facing regular Israeli strikes, Hezbollah is under internal and international pressure to hand over its weapons, with the Lebanese army having drawn up a plan to disarm it. The Lebanese army said last month that it had completed the disarmament mission south of the Litani River, in the area closest to Israel.

As part of the Lebanese government’s disarmament push, some Palestinian factions in Lebanon handed over weapons in several refugee camps last year to the Lebanese authorities.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have not announced plans to disarm in Lebanon.

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