Israel launched an airstrike on Beirut for the first time since a U.S.-backed cease-fire took effect in November, amid growing frustrations among some American officials about the Lebanese government’s slow progress in disarming Hezbollah in the country’s south.

Israel on Friday carried out its first major airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs in months, retaliating for an earlier rocket launch from Lebanon in the most serious test of a shaky ceasefire deal agreed in November.

The attack in the southern outskirts of the Lebanese capital, an area where Hezbollah holds sway, followed rocket fire toward northern Israel.