Israel marks 1-year anniversary of Hamas attacks, cross-border strikes anticipated

Israel marked its first anniversary of the fighting with Hamas as it continued striking the Palestinian group’s targets in Gaza and Hezbollah facilities in Lebanon amid fears of a regional war.

In Short

• Gaza and Lebanon’s Beirut battered by barrage of Israeli airstrikes
• 10 injured after Hezbollah fired rockets at Haifa in northern Israel on Sunday
• Israel’s Defence Minister says considering options to attack Iran

Israeli forces bombed Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and attacked what it called a Hamas command centre in a Gaza hospital as the  amid escalating tensions in the region.

On October 7, 2023,   before the group’s terrorists breached the Gaza border and attacked the Jewish nation by air, sea and land, in one of the deadliest and biggest attacks on Israel. During the onslaught, Hamas terrorists attacked neighbourhoods and went on a rampage at a music festival, killing some 1,200 people, injuring hundreds of others and taking over 250 hostages.

Since then, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Gaza  which has killed almost 42,000 people. Israeli forces have widened their offensive and are fighting Iran-backed terror groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and militias in Iraq and Syria.

TENSIONS RISE AMID ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s attacks on Israel, Hezbollah launched rockets late on Sunday, breached Israeli air defence systems and struck Haifa, the country’s third-largest city, causing damage to buildings and injuring 10 people. The rocket strikes also hit the city of Tiberias and Hezbollah targeted a military site south of Haifa with a barrage of “Fadi 1” missiles.

• Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday in the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since the escalation against Hezbollah began last month. The Israeli military said fighter jets targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters and weapons storage facilities in Beirut. Additional strikes were carried out against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon and Beqaa Valley.

• In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes targeted a school and a mosque that were converted into shelters and pummelled the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after the Israeli military claimed that a Hamas command centre was operating on the premises. The strikes killed 26 people and injured 93 others.

• On the eve of the Gaza war anniversary, pro-Palestinian demonstrators held protests against Israel across the globe, from Jakarta to Istanbul and Rabat. These demonstrations followed large rallies in major European capitals, as well as in Washington and New York, on Saturday.

• On Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would make its own decisions on how to respond to Iran, days after Tehran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles on the Jewish nation, marking a dramatic rise in tensions and raising fears of a broader regional conflict.

• Despite calls for a ceasefire for both the Gaza war and Israel’s ground operations in Lebanon, Israeli forces continued to strike Hamas and Hezbollah targets. The US, Israel’s ally, responded to Israel’s heavy bombardments, stating that while military pressure can facilitate diplomacy, it also risks dangerous miscalculations.

• The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Sunday designated the areas surrounding the towns of Manara, Yiftach and Malkia, near the Lebanese border, as closed military zones. The decision followed a security assessment of the region. The IDF stressed that access to these areas is strictly prohibited until further notice.

• The conflict in Lebanon, which began a year ago with Hezbollah’s cross-border strikes in solidarity with Hamas, has significantly intensified in recent weeks. According to the Lebanese health ministry, over 2,000 people have been killed in the ongoing fighting, with most casualties occurring in the past two weeks.