Israel put its military on high alert on Saturday, the anniversary of Hamas’ attack on 7 October 2023. This came after a military source said the country was getting ready to respond to Iran’s missile attack.
Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said that Hezbollah would be hit “without concession or respite” as the war with them worsened.
Before the grim anniversary on Monday, military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on TV, “We are ready with increased forces in anticipation for this day,” when there could be “attacks on the home front.”
A Palestinian group launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October last year. The attack killed 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli numbers that included prisoners who were killed in captivity.
After a year, the war in Gaza is still going on, but Israel’s attention has been drawn north to Hezbollah in Lebanon, which is backed by Iran.
About 440 Hezbollah members have been killed by Israeli troops “from the ground and from the air” since Monday, when they started “targeted” ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel says it wants to let back home the tens of thousands of Israelis who had to leave their homes because of Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel for almost a year.
President Isaac Herzog of Israel called Iran an “ongoing threat” after Tehran fired about 200 rockets at Israel on Tuesday in response to Israeli killings of top militant leaders. Iran supports armed groups all over the Middle East.
Duty to answer
Satellite pictures show that the attack killed a Palestinian in the West Bank, which is occupied by Israel, and destroyed an Israeli air base.
It happened on the same day that Israeli ground troops started raiding into Lebanon, and after days of heavy attacks on Hezbollah strongholds all over Lebanon.
One Israeli military official told AFP that the army “is preparing a response” to Iran’s attack, but he did not want to be named because he was not allowed to talk about it in public.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that since April, Iran had fired “hundreds of missiles” at Israeli land twice.
“Israel has the duty and the right to defend itself and to respond to these attacks and that is what we will do,” he said in a statement.
Netanyahu’s critics accuse him of obstructing efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire and deal to free hostages still held by Hamas.
A senior Hezbollah source said Saturday the group had lost contact with Hashem Safieddine, widely tipped to be the next Hezbollah leader, after air strikes in Beirut.
The movement is yet to name a new chief after Israel assassinated Hassan Nasrallah late last month in a massive strike in the Lebanese capital. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday said that “the resistance in the region will not back down”.
Fresh strikes on Hamas
Hezbollah said its fighters were confronting Israeli troops in Lebanon’s southern border region, and early Sunday claimed to have repelled an attempted Israeli incursion into a border village.
The Israeli military said Saturday it had struck militants inside a mosque in Bint Jbeil. It also reported frequent rocket fire from Lebanon while Hezbollah claimed a rocket attack on northern Israel’s Ramat David air base, and on a “military industries company” near Israel’s coastal city of Acre.
Hamas said Israeli strikes had killed two of its operatives in north and east Lebanon Saturday, which the Israeli military confirmed.
One of them was hit near Tripoli, Hamas said, the first such strike in the northern area.
‘Never-ending nightmare’
On central Beirut’s busy Hamra Street, Salma Salman said she had been camping out with her seven-year-old twin daughters for nearly two weeks.
“We’re living a terrifying, never-ending nightmare,” she said.
Late Saturday Israel issued a new order for residents of southern Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, to evacuate.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said early Sunday that “more than 30” Israeli strikes had hit south Beirut and its outskirts overnight.
AFP correspondents in Beirut heard several explosions and saw smoke rising in southern Beirut.
Across Lebanon, the wave of strikes on Hezbollah strongholds has killed more than 1,110 people since September 23, according to a tally based on official figures.
The head of the UN’s refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, said in Lebanon that the country “faces a terrible crisis” and warned “hundreds of thousands of people are left destitute or displaced by Israeli air strikes.”
Israeli bombardment has put at least four hospitals in Lebanon out of service, the facilities said.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it rejected a request by the Israeli military to “relocate some of our positions” in south Lebanon.
Ireland’s President Michael Higgins, whose country has peacekeepers in the mission, said Israel was “demanding that the entire UNIFIL... walk away,” which he called “an insult to the most important global institution”.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, visiting Damascus on Saturday after a stop in Beirut, renewed his call for ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon, while threatening Israel with an “even stronger” reaction to any attack on Iran.
French President Emmanuel Macron said it was time “that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” adding that France was not providing any.
He also criticized Israel’s decision to send ground troops into Lebanon.
Unhealed wounds
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators tried unsuccessfully for months to reach a Gaza truce and secure the release of 97 hostages still held in the Hamas-ruled territory.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Sunday an Israeli strike on a mosque-turned-shelter in central Deir al-Balah killed 21 people, while Israel’s military said it had targeted Hamas militants.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,825 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the territory’s health ministry and described as reliable by the UN.
Ahead of the 7 October anniversary, thousands joined pro-Palestinian rallies in London, Paris, Cape Town and other cities.
Herzog, the Israeli president, said his country’s 7 October “wounds still cannot fully heal.”