Israel has struck Lebanon’s capital for the first time since June, saying it killed Hezbollah’s chief of staff and warning the Iran-backed militant group not to rearm and rebuild.

Smoke could be seen in the busy Haret Hreik neighborhood, with one video that circulated on social media showing dozens of people crowded around the area of the strike.

Israel carried out a rare airstrike on Beirut, describing the target as Hezbollah’s military chief, as an almost year-old ceasefire deal with the Lebanese government wavers.

Israel struck Lebanon’s capital on Sunday, killing at least five people and wounding more than two dozen others.

Israeli strike kills Hezbollah chief of staff Haytham Ali Tabatabai in Beirut as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls him a "mass murderer" with $5 million bounty on his head.

Israel killed militant group Hezbollah's top military official in an airstrike on a southern suburb of Beirut, the Israeli military said, despite a U.S.-brokered truce a year ago.

LA Times Middle East bureau chief Nabih Boulos says the status of the Israeli-Lebanese ceasefire is unclear: “The Lebanese are ceasing while the Israelis continue firing.”

Haytham Ali Tabatabai was key to the group’s efforts to reconstitute its ranks after last year’s war with Israel.

Israel said it killed Hezbollah’s de facto chief of staff in an airstrike outside of Lebanon’s capital, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that more attacks would come as necessary. The airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs,

The strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed five people and wounded 25 others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

Israel has repeatedly struck Lebanon since a ceasefire last year, but Sunday’s Beirut attack was an escalation.