With a silent march, moving testimonies, and the symbolic planting of 75 trees in honor of the victims, Lebanon commemorated on Aug. 4 the fifth anniversary of the devastating explosion that rocked Beirut’s port in 2020, leaving 245 dead and 6,000 injured.

It has also warned civilians to quit swathes of southern and eastern Lebanon - heartlands of the Lebanese armed Shi'ite Muslim group. They were the ‌widest evacuation orders ever given by Israel in Lebanon and ‌prompted a huge displacement of people before the bombardments that continued into Friday,

The Israeli Air Force has launched a new wave of 26 airstrikes in Beirut targeting Hezbollah facilities as part of its defense against the Iranian-backed group based in Lebanon. Israel’s strikes on its northern neighbor are part of its broader aerial offensive against what it has called the Iranian regime’s “terror network,