Israeli warplanes struck central Beirut and the city’s southern suburbs on Tuesday, raising palls of smoke over the Lebanese capital. This happened before a planned vote by Israel’s leadership on whether to accept a US-brokered ceasefire aimed at ending more than a year of fighting with Hezbollah. The Israeli military also issued warnings for people in 20 more buildings in Beirut’s suburbs to evacuate before they too were struck – a sign it was aiming to inflict punishment on Hezbollah down to the last moments before any ceasefire took hold.
