Iran has rejected France, Germany, and the United Kingdom’s demand that it refrain from retaliating for the July 31 death of Hamas senior leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Tensions remain high on Israel’s northern border, with Lebanon-based Hezbollah vowing to respond to Israel’s death of its senior military commander, Fuad Shukr. Israel continued its murder campaign on Friday, killing a Hamas commander in Sidon, Lebanon. “It’s a very, very tense time here in Beirut, and in Lebanon more generally,” says Karim Makdisi, an international lecturer.

Beirut. He claims that the cycle of escalation in the region has a clear cause, Israel’s attack on Gaza, which is supported by the United States, and that ending the violence there will bring quiet elsewhere. “Get a ceasefire, everything stops.”