Israeli warplanes struck central Beirut and the city’s southern suburbs, raising smoke over the Lebanese capital ahead of a planned vote by Israel’s leadership on whether to accept a U.S.-brokered ceasefire aimed at ending more than a year of fighting with Hezbollah militants.

The expansion of the war came almost a year after Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and killed around 1,200 people and took 250 hostages. Israel's subsequent incursions in Gaza has killed nearly 44,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.