Latest Middle East news: A Hamas official is killed in an Israeli attack on a refugee camp

Hamas official Saeed Atallah Ali and his family were killed in an Israeli attack on a refugee camp in northern Lebanon, the militant group said on Saturday. The early morning attack came a day after another Israeli airstrike disrupted a main road connecting Lebanon with Syria, leaving two huge craters on either side of the road.

Israel began a ground attack in Lebanon against the militant Hezbollah group on Tuesday. According to the Israeli military, nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.

There has been an almost daily exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah across the border with Lebanon since the day after Hamas' cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 others were taken hostage. In response, Israel declared war on the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. As the war between Israel and Hamas reaches the one-year mark, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, according to local health authorities, and just over half of the dead were women and children.

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since then, most of them since September 23.

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Here's the latest:

BEIRUT – An Israeli attack on a refugee camp in northern Lebanon has killed a Hamas official and his family, the militant group said Saturday.

Hamas said in a statement that the attack early Saturday on the Beddawi refugee camp hit the home of Saeed Atallah Ali, an official with Hamas's military wing, the Qassam Brigades. Ali's wife Shaymaa Azzam and their two daughters Zeinab and Fatima – described as children in the statement – were also killed in the attack.

The Beddawi camp is near the northern city of Tripoli. It was the first such attack on the camp in recent weeks, leading to intensified exchanges between Israel and Hamas.

Since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023, Israel has killed several Hamas officials in Lebanon.

SEOUL, South Korea – A military plane that evacuated 97 people from Lebanon arrived in South Korea on Saturday.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry said that the group on board the plane included South Korean nationals and their family members. In addition to diplomats and embassy staff who are staying there, there are around 30 South Koreans still in Lebanon.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday ordered officials to send military aircraft to conflict zones in the Middle East, as he convened a meeting to discuss the impact of intensified fighting in the region. There are around 480 South Korean citizens living in Israel and 110 in Iran.