Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that he authorised the deadly attack on Hezbollah communications devices in Lebanon in September.
This confirmation by the Israeli PM marked the first time Israel has publicly admitted to being behind the operation. Lebanon has always accused Israel of being behind the attack, but they neither confirmed or denied their involvement until now.
The attack, which targeted Hezbollah’s pager system, resulted in explosions that killed 39 people and wounded approximately 3,000, occurring over two consecutive days in supermarkets, streets, and funerals.
The operation preceded Israel's ongoing military actions in Lebanon, which escalated in late September following Hezbollah’s strikes on Israel, supporting Hamas after the October 7 attack on Israel.
Since then, violence has intensified, with Israel launching airstrikes and sending ground troops into southern Lebanon.
Israel began a series of strikes on central Beirut on Tuesday evening after issuing its first-ever evacuation orders for four areas inside the city itself, hours before a ceasefire was expected to be announced.
Russian forces staged their largest ever drone attack on Ukraine overnight, cutting power to much of the western region of Ternopil and damaging residential buildings in Kyiv region, Ukraine's officials said on Tuesday.
Israeli strikes pummelled south Beirut on Monday, Lebanese official media said, while health authorities reported 31 people killed across the country, most of them in the south.
At least one police officer was killed and dozens of people injured in Pakistan as supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan clashed with security forces outside the capital Islamabad on Monday, officials and Khan's party said.
A small plane travelling to Costa Rica's capital of San Jose crashed on Monday afternoon, authorities said, killing five of the six passengers on board.