Over the weekend, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) carried out a major airstrike against Hezbollah in Beirut, constituting the first attack on terrorist-controlled neighborhoods in the Lebanese capital since July. The Beirut attack coincided with significant escalations in the Gaza Strip as IDF ground forces clashed with Hamas gunmen in Rafah and targeted Hamas leadership in Gaza City. The escalations on both fronts over the weekend signal not only a continual breakdown in the ceasefire frameworks — a breakdown that has been unfolding for weeks — but solidifies a new “ceasefire status quo” that sees violations and fatal clashes as the new norm. On Sunday, Nov. 24, the IDF carried out a precision strike that demolished the third and fourth floors of a nine-story apartment building in the Hezbollah-controlled neighborhood of Haret Hreik in southern Beirut. The attack killed Hezbollah’s military chief of staff, Haytham Ali Tabatabai, among other Hezbollah officials. Netanyahu continued to describe Tabatabai, who since 2016 has had a U.S. bounty on his head for $5 million, as a “mass murderer” with Israeli and American blood on his hands. Tabatabai joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and was eulogized by the terrorist group on Sunday as “among the leaders who laid the foundations.” He was second in command in Hezbollah’s international chain of command. As leader of the elite Radwan Force in Southern Lebanon and head of Hezbollah’s forces in Syria, he was also tasked with devising the plans for what has now been exposed as an “October 7-style” invasion of northern Israel. After most of Hezbollah’s leadership was killed by Israel in 2024, Tabatabai assumed official responsibility for continuing the fight against Israel, including its military buildup and reorganization, despite the U.S. and French-brokered Israeli-Hezbollah ceasefire that came into effect on Nov. 27 last year. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced in a statement: “The IDF struck, in the heart of Beirut, the Hezbollah chief of staff who led the organization’s military buildup and armament efforts.” Netanyahu continued to describe Tabatabai, who since 2016 has had a U.S. bounty on his head for $5 million, as a “mass murderer” with Israeli and American blood on his hands. Hezbollah spokesperson Mahmud Qomati stated that the attack “crossed new red lines” and that “all options are on the table.” Over Sunday night, IDF forces in northern Israel were put on high alert, and, for the first time since the so-called 12-Day War with Iran, residents in Israel’s northern towns and cities went to bed anticipating possible aerial sirens. The Beirut attack was a response to Hezbollah’s repeated violations of the year-old ceasefire over recent months and intelligence reports of the group’s rapid armament by Iran. The attack was also a signal to the government in Beirut, as Jerusalem has grown frustrated with the Lebanese government’s increasing failure to contain Hezbollah north of the Litani River, as per the ceasefire terms, and enforce the terrorist groups’ disarmament. While Hezbollah should have been disarming over the past year, under official Lebanese oversight, Israeli officials claim that the terrorist group has been rebuilding its military capabilities, smuggling weapons, and upgrading its arsenal to replace rockets with explosive drone production in preparation for future attacks on Israel. “Under my leadership, the State of Israel will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its power, and we will not allow it to once again pose a threat to the State of Israel,” said Netanyahu. In response to the Sunday attack, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun viewed the incident as Israeli aggression rather than an enforcement of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 from 2006, and the 2024 ceasefire terms. In a statement, Aoun called out to the international community “to assume its responsibility and intervene firmly and seriously to stop the attacks on Lebanon and its people.” The same day that Tabatabai was killed in Beirut, a Hamas delegation was sent to Cairo to meet with mediators and discuss the recent escalation in the Gaza Strip. Days after U.S. President Trump’s brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on October 10 of this year, the IDF and Palestinian terrorist groups renewed clashes in Gaza as both factions accuse the other of violating the ceasefire terms. (RELATED: The New York Times Sets a New Low on Israel) Dozens of Hamas operatives have been holed up in tunnels in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which, according to the ceasefire terms, falls under IDF control. Using expansive tunnel networks, the Hamas terrorists have carried out hit-and-run attacks against IDF soldiers over the past six weeks. Tensions reached a new high on Friday when the IDF engaged with a squad of Hamas operatives who emerged from a tunnel in eastern Rafah and opened fire on Israeli positions. This triggered wider repercussions, and on Saturday, the IDF carried out additional strikes targeting Hamas military officials in Gaza City. According to Jerusalem, five senior Hamas officials were killed in Saturday’s strike, including Hamas’s chief of weapons supply and distribution, Al Hadidi. Rumors quickly spread over the weekend that Hamas had declared an end to the ceasefire. According to an Arab diplomat speaking to the Times of Israel, Hamas told US mediators that they were prepared to end the six-week ceasefire over “Israeli violations.” Hamas later denied the claim, stressing that they are committed to “ending the continuing Zionist violations” through international oversight, but the sentiment lingered in the air as a future possibility. The next step in Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, calling for the withdrawal of IDF forces beyond the Yellow Line and the deployment of a multinational security force, has reached an impasse. Israel refuses to withdraw its forces until it sees firm evidence of Hamas’s disarmament, while Hamas remains committed to maintaining its military and political position in Gaza. Additionally, Hamas is still holding the bodies of three hostages as negotiating leverage, in clear violation of the terms to hand over all hostages, dead and alive, within the first days of the ceasefire in October. (RELATED: Peace a Pipedream As Palestinians Continue to Embrace Hamas) Israel’s continued strikes on Hamas are in response to these violations. “Hamas has not stopped violating [the ceasefire], and we are acting accordingly,” Netanyahu stated on Sunday. “There were several attempts by them [Hamas] to infiltrate our territory beyond the Yellow Line and harm our soldiers. We thwarted these forcefully, and we responded and exacted a very heavy price.” The weekend attacks on two fronts, in Beirut and Gaza, recall the heydays of the war in 2024. The consistent violation of ceasefire terms by Hamas and Hezbollah, and the lack of oversight by international mediating bodies, question the legitimacy and strength of the ceasefire frameworks. As Israel acts alone, and with strength, to enforce the terms and keep terrorists at bay, the ceasefires with which Trump proudly proclaimed peace in the Middle East have shifted into a new, accepted status quo that sees violations and fatal clashes as new peacetime norms. READ MORE from Bennett Tucker: Military Clashes in Gaza Challenge the Ceasefire Terms Trump in Jerusalem Real Peace in Israel Lies Beyond the Two-State Solution