Officials close to President Joseph Aoun have floated the idea that a U.S. envoy carry out continuous negotiations between Lebanon and Israel to halt the Israeli escalation and try and find solutions for the disputed border points and the captives file, Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper has reported.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has said that the latest Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs were a “major scandal,” seeing as “eight months after the signing of the ceasefire agreement in November 2024, Beirut is being bombed again.”

Fireworks lit up the night sky over Beirut's famous St. Georges Hotel as hit songs from the 1960s and 70s filled the air in a courtyard overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

The retro-themed event was hosted last month by Lebanon's Tourism Ministry to promote the upcoming summer season and perhaps recapture some of the good vibes from an era viewed as a golden one for the country. In the years before a civil war began in 1975, Lebanon was the go-to destination for wealthy tourists from neighboring Gulf countries seeking beaches in summer, snow-capped mountains in winter and urban nightlife year-round.

Health Minister Rakan Nassereldine said several people were wounded by flying glass during Israel’s latest bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs.

AFP photographers on Friday saw huge destruction as residents, some wearing masks, inspected the debris and damage to their homes.

An art expert who appeared on the BBC's Bargain Hunt show was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for failing to report his sale of pricey works to a suspected financier of Lebanon's Hezbollah.

At a previous hearing, Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, had pleaded guilty to eight offenses under the Terrorism Act 2000. The art sales for about 140,000 pounds ($185,000) to Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer sanctioned by the UK and U.S. as a Hezbollah financier, took place between October 2020 and December 2021. The sanctions were designed to prevent anyone in the UK or U.S. from trading with Ahmad or his businesses.

The Lebanese Army condemned Friday Israel's airstrikes on southern suburbs of Beirut, warning that such attacks are weakening the role of Lebanon's armed forces that might eventually suspend cooperation with the committee monitoring the truce that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war.

The army statement came hours after the Israeli military struck several buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs that it claimed held underground facilities used by Hezbollah for drone production. The strikes, preceded by an Israeli warning to evacuate several buildings, came on the eve of Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday.

Iran condemned Israeli "aggression" against Lebanon on Friday after its arch foe carried out air strikes against alleged targets of Tehran-backed Hezbollah in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the Thursday evening strikes "as a blatant act of aggression against Lebanon's territorial integrity and sovereignty."

Israel warned Friday that it will keep striking Lebanon until Hezbollah has been disarmed, hours after it hit Beirut's southern subrubs in what Lebanese leaders called a major violation of the November ceasefire.

An Israeli military evacuation call issued ahead of Thursday's strikes sent huge numbers of residents of the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, long a bastion of Iran-backed Hezbollah, fleeing for their lives.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz praised Thursday the Israeli military after it struck several sites in Beirut’s southern suburbs that it said held underground facilities used by Hezbollah for drone production.

Katz in a statement praised the Israeli air force for "perfect execution" of the strikes and said Israel will "continue to enforce the ceasefire rules without any compromise."

Lebanon's leaders accused Israel of a "flagrant" ceasefire violation by launching strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday ahead of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha.

President Joseph Aoun in a statement voiced "firm condemnation of the Israeli aggression" and called the strikes a "blatant violation of an international agreement, as well as the basic principles of international and humanitarian laws and resolutions, on the eve of a sacred religious occasion". He said it demonstrates Israel's "rejection of the requirements of stability, settlement and just peace in our region."