A video has gone viral showing Lebanese musician Mahdi Sahely playing cello amid ruins as buildings in Beirut were hit in Israeli strikes. He was playing Soviet-American composer Aram Khachaturian's Andantino, with social media users describing it as a "hymn of defiance" and "haunting". Observers drew parallels between Sahely and Ukraine's Alex Pian, who performed during wartime sirens in 2022.