Israel was forced to fend off rocket attacks from its foes at either end of the country this morning as its citizens commemorated the first anniversary of Hamas’ atrocities on October 7 last year. A rocket fired by Hezbollah across Israel’s northern border slammed into the city of Haifa south of Tel Aviv overnight, with security footage showing the moment the projectile erupted in a ferocious explosion in a quiet residential street.
Hours later, more rockets soared over Israel’s southern border and impacted targets in Tel Aviv and elsewhere as Hamas sought to wreak havoc a year on from one of the darkest days in Jewish history since the Holocaust. Israeli President Isaac Herzog began the day with a minute of silence at 6:29am – the moment Hamas’ cross-border insurgency started – at the site of the Nova music festival near Re’im where heavily armed Hamas fighters killed at least 370 people. But minutes later the service was marred by air raid sirens as Hamas declared it launched projectiles at the ‘enemy gatherings’ just a few kilometres from the border with Gaza, as well as at Tel Aviv.
Images emerged later this morning showed civilians and rescue workers inspecting damage at various buildings caused by rockets or falling shrapnel, while videos showed smoke trailing from craters near Israel’s cultural and commercial capital. The Israeli army said several Hamas rockets were downed by air defence systems, adding that it had foiled what would have been a much larger attack after it ‘struck Hamas launch posts and underground terrorist infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip’. But some projectiles still hit their targets, while Hezbollah announced it had let loose two salvos of ‘Fadi 1’ missiles on Haifa and Tiberias.
It is unclear whether anyone was killed in the attacks, but images emerging from blast sites in Israel showed spatters of blood inside homes as rescuers investigated the wreckage. The attacks prompted an IDF spokesperson to issue an evacuation order to residents in several regions of southern Gaza ahead of an ‘extreme response’, before the military said was also launching ‘targeted’ strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut. ‘Due to Hamas’ terrorist acts, which will be met with extreme force, you must evacuate these areas immediately and move to the humanitarian area an Al-Mawasi,’ the IDF’s Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee declared.
Ceremonies and events are planned across Israel and in cities around the world to mark the anniversary of the unprecedented attack by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, which claimed more than 1,200 lives. Families of those killed attended the memorial site of the Nova music festival in Re’im and many were seen breaking down as President Herzog declared: ‘A year has passed since life came to a halt, the skies darkened, and all of us witnessed the monstrous cruelty of the enemy that sought to bring destruction upon the Jewish people, the State of Israel, and Israeli society.’
‘We are all still in pain, and we seek to make space for national mourning, for the tears over the terrible disaster that struck us,’ he said, adding that the world ‘must support Israel’ to bring peace. Herzog will later on Monday lead a ceremony to remember victims of the war against Hamas in the western Israel city of Sderot, less than two kilometres (just over a mile) from the Gaza border. ‘The world has to realise and understand that in order to change the course of history and bring peace, a better future to the region, it must support Israel in its battle against its enemies,’ Herzog said this morning in Re’im, before walking among the memorials to greet families of the victims.
The IDF meanwhile released never-before-seen footage from October 7, showing Israeli soldiers fighting Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Re’im on the morning of the onslaught in a reminder of the brutality of the unexpected attacks. It came as a senior Hamas official gloated this morning that last year’s ruthless terrorist attack returned Israel back to ‘square zero’. ‘The Al-Aqsa flood returned the occupation to square zero and threatened its existence,’ Khaled Meshaal, the former head of Hamas, said on the Al Arabiya TV station, using the Palestinian group’s official name for the attack.
Last year’s shocking insurgency into Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to tallies based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity. Since then, at least 41,870 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip according to data provided by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The UN has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
Meshaal said the October 7 operation was ‘a natural response to the occupation and its accelerating plans for settlement, siege and aggression against Al-Aqsa,’ referring to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City. He also accused Israel of threatening Egypt and Jordan, despite long-standing peace agreements between the countries, saying ‘the enemy wants everyone in the region to be subject to him and he does this even with countries that do not fight him’. He said that Israel ‘attacks Arab and Islamic national security everywhere’.
The first anniversary of Hamas’ atrocity comes with Israel still fighting in Gaza and engaged in a fresh war to the north in Lebanon against Hamas ally Hezbollah. It is also preparing its retaliation against Tehran over an Iranian missile attack last week, raising fears of an even wider conflict. On a visit to the border with Lebanon this morning to speak with IDF troops engaged in the conflict to the north, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: ‘A year ago, we suffered a terrible blow. ‘But over the past 12 months, we have completely transformed reality,’ he concluded, vowing to achieve victory over Hamas and Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, IDF chief Herzi Halevi told his troops: ‘A year has passed, and we have defeated the military wing of Hamas… We have dealt a severe blow to Hezbollah, which has lost all of its senior leadership. We are not stopping – we fight, debrief, learn, and improve,’ he added, as troops in northern Gaza operated against what the IDF said were Hamas attempts to rebuild. ‘We are destroying our enemies’ capabilities, and we will ensure that these capabilities are not rebuilt, so that October 7th is never repeated.’
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