Israel conducts first strike on Lebanon since ceasefire deal

JERUSALEM: Israel on Friday carried out its first major airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in months in retaliation for what it claimed an earlier rocket attack on Israel from Lebanon in the most serious test of a shaky ceasefire deal agreed in November.

Hezbollah denied any role in the rocket fire on Friday and on March 22. Lebanon President Joseph Aoun said a Lebanese investigation into last week’s attack on Israel from Lebanon did not point to Hezbollah and called Israel’s Friday’s strike on Beirut unjustified.