Israeli drone strike targets Ain Al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon, southern Lebanon.

Israel is now claiming Hamas is operating inside Lebanon and has begun striking targets in Ain al-Hilweh, one of the region’s most densely packed Palestinian refugee camps.

The IDF says it hit a “Hamas training compound,” but this is a massive escalation if true because Ain al-Hilweh isn’t Hamas territory. It’s controlled by Fatah factions and local militias, and Lebanon’s security services treat any foreign militant presence as a direct threat to sovereignty.

If Israel is reframing southern Lebanon as a Hamas sanctuary, it’s pretext-building. It blurs the line between the Gaza war and the Lebanon front, and turns a refugee camp into a battlefield for a second war Israel has been hinting at for months.

Beirut has already warned that any Israeli expansion beyond Hezbollah into Palestinian camps is a red line.

If the IDF is now officially declaring “Hamas in Lebanon,” then we are moving into extremely dangerous territory, the kind that turns a border conflict into a regional war.