Fireworks lit up the night sky over Beirut's famous St. Georges Hotel as hit songs from the 1960s and 70s filled the air in a courtyard overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

The retro-themed event was hosted last month by Lebanon's Tourism Ministry to promote the upcoming summer season and perhaps recapture some of the good vibes from an era viewed as a golden one for the country. In the years before a civil war began in 1975, Lebanon was the go-to destination for wealthy tourists from neighboring Gulf countries seeking beaches in summer, snow-capped mountains in winter and urban nightlife year-round.

An art expert who appeared on the BBC's Bargain Hunt show was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for failing to report his sale of pricey works to a suspected financier of Lebanon's Hezbollah.

At a previous hearing, Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, had pleaded guilty to eight offenses under the Terrorism Act 2000. The art sales for about 140,000 pounds ($185,000) to Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer sanctioned by the UK and U.S. as a Hezbollah financier, took place between October 2020 and December 2021. The sanctions were designed to prevent anyone in the UK or U.S. from trading with Ahmad or his businesses.

The Lebanese Army condemned Friday Israel's airstrikes on southern suburbs of Beirut, warning that such attacks are weakening the role of Lebanon's armed forces that might eventually suspend cooperation with the committee monitoring the truce that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war.

The army statement came hours after the Israeli military struck several buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs that it claimed held underground facilities used by Hezbollah for drone production. The strikes, preceded by an Israeli warning to evacuate several buildings, came on the eve of Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday.

The United Nations chief on Thursday urged world leaders and officials attending an upcoming U.N. conference on ending the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict "to keep the two-state solution alive."

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters that the international community must not only support a solution where independent states of Palestine and Israel live side-by-side in peace but "materialize the conditions to make it happen."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel has "activated" some clans of Palestinians in Gaza that are opposed to Hamas, though it was not immediately clear what role they would play.

His comments on social media were the first public acknowledgment of Israel's backing of armed Palestinian groups within Gaza, based around powerful clans or extended families.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz praised Thursday the Israeli military after it struck several sites in Beirut’s southern suburbs that it said held underground facilities used by Hezbollah for drone production.

Katz in a statement praised the Israeli air force for "perfect execution" of the strikes and said Israel will "continue to enforce the ceasefire rules without any compromise."

Lebanon's leaders accused Israel of a "flagrant" ceasefire violation by launching strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday ahead of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha.

President Joseph Aoun in a statement voiced "firm condemnation of the Israeli aggression" and called the strikes a "blatant violation of an international agreement, as well as the basic principles of international and humanitarian laws and resolutions, on the eve of a sacred religious occasion". He said it demonstrates Israel's "rejection of the requirements of stability, settlement and just peace in our region."

A Lebanese army official said that the army had attempted to convince Israel not to carry out strikes on several sites in Beirut’s southern suburbs Thursday, on the eve of the Eid al-Adha holiday.

The official said the army asked Israel to let Lebanese officials go in to search the area under the mechanism laid out in the ceasefire agreement, but that the Israeli army refused, so Lebanese soldiers moved away from the locations.

The Israeli military struck several sites in Beirut's southern suburbs that it said held underground facilities used by Hezbollah for drone production Thursday, on the eve of the Eid al-Adha holiday.

The strikes marked the first time in more than a month that Israel had struck on the outskirts of the capital and the fourth time since a US-brokered ceasefire agreement ended the latest war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in November.

Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Thursday that recognizing a Palestinian state at the moment would send "the wrong signal".

Speaking at a Berlin press conference with his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar, he said that "negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians must be concluded" first, before the recognition of a Palestinian state.