Israel said on Thursday it had killed a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in an airstrike on Beirut a day earlier, the first Israeli attack on the Lebanese capital since a ceasefire agreed last month. The Israeli military said the commander was killed when Israel struck the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The strike has raised pressure on the ceasefire that had halted Israeli attacks on Beirut, even as Israeli forces have remained deployed in areas south of the Litani River and continued to carry out strikes in southern Lebanon.

Iran ally Hezbollah has responded to those strikes by firing and launching armed drones towards Israeli soldiers.

The Lebanon ceasefire has underpinned a broader truce in the wider Iran war, with a halt to Israeli strikes in Lebanon being a key Iranian demand in Tehran’s negotiations with Washington.

The immediate outlook includes continued talks between Israel and Lebanon, with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stating that shoring up a ceasefire would be the basis for any new negotiations between Lebanese and Israeli government envoys in Washington, and the US looking forward to hosting high-level meetings to facilitate a peace deal.