Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised on Sunday to defeat the “enemies” of Israel, at a time when the still traumatized country, at war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, commemorates the Hamas attack which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip a year ago.
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In Tel Aviv, hundreds of people gathered on Sunday evening, lighting candles, praying around an improvised altar, in memory of their loved ones killed on October 7, 2023 in the unprecedented attack carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement. against Israel.
After weakening Hamas during its offensive launched in the Gaza Strip, in retaliation for this attack, the Israeli army shifted most of its operations to the northern front in mid-September, where Lebanese Hezbollah has been multiplying ever since. a year of rocket fire towards Israel in support of Hamas.
Sunday evening, after a new call to evacuate launched by the Israeli army to residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Lebanese news agency ANI reported two airstrikes in this sector, a Hezbollah stronghold shelled in recent days by Israel.
But after a year of war which left tens of thousands dead and the failure of all attempts at mediation, the Israeli offensive also continues in the Gaza Strip, besieged and devastated, where the army announced on Sunday carry out operations in the north.
The army, on alert before the October 7 anniversary, said it was deploying additional troops near the Palestinian territory.
“It is together that we will fight and together we will win,” said Mr. Netanyahu, visiting soldiers stationed in northern Israel, along the Lebanese border.
“A year ago we suffered a terrible blow,” he said. “Over the next twelve months, we transformed reality from one extreme to the other. The whole world is amazed by the blows you deal to our enemies,” added the Prime Minister, who is due to deliver a speech to the nation on Monday.
Israeli Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi said his country was waging “a long-term war” against Hamas and Hezbollah, but said Hamas’ military wing had been “defeated.”
“Afraid of bursting into tears”
“Coming here, a year after this atrocious massacre, is deeply moving,” Solly Laniado, one of the organizers of the tribute, told Tel Aviv. “We don’t know how to find the words. We are afraid of bursting into tears.”
Thousands of people gathered in London and Paris to “not forget” the victims of October 7, while others across the world demonstrated their support for the Palestinians in Gaza, but also in Lebanon.
Hamas praised the “glorious” attack of October 7.
The war on these two fronts is accompanied by an escalation between Israel and Iran, an ally of Hamas and Hezbollah, which fired 200 missiles into Israeli territory on Tuesday, leading to new fears of a conflagration in the Middle East.
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant threatened Iran with strikes similar to those targeting Gaza and Lebanon. Tehran said it was “ready” to retaliate, according to the Tasnim agency, citing a military source.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday called for an end to the “shocking violence” and “bloodshed” in Gaza and Lebanon.
“The time for a ceasefire has now come,” French President Emmanuel Macron told Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.
“The Most Violent Night”
On Sunday, Israel announced it was “surrounding” the Jabaliya area, in the north of the Gaza Strip, claiming that Hamas was “replenishing its forces” there, and having carried out airstrikes against “dozens of targets”.
According to Gaza Civil Defense, 17 people including nine children died there.
In the center of the territory, in Deir al-Balah, at least 26 people were killed in strikes on a mosque and a school welcoming displaced people, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
In Lebanon, intense Israeli aerial bombardments on the southern suburbs of Beirut have once again terrorized the capital’s residents.
“It was the most violent night we had ever experienced. There was so much bombing that it looked like an earthquake,” Mehdi Zaïter, 60, a trader from the southern suburbs of Beirut, where the destruction was enormous, told AFP.
After a campaign of massive airstrikes against Hezbollah, which dealt it very heavy blows and left hundreds dead across Lebanon, Israel launched ground operations against the Islamist movement in the south of the country on September 30, all by continuing its bombardments.
Israel has promised to fight the powerful Lebanese armed movement until “victory”, in order to allow the return to the border regions of the 60,000 inhabitants displaced by incessant rocket fire.
Hezbollah, for its part, assured that it had targeted Israeli forces on Sunday after an infiltration attempt in the Blida area, in southern Lebanon, and claimed responsibility for rocket fire against military bases in northern Israel.
Back to school postponed in Lebanon
Since October 2023, more than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, including more than a thousand in Israeli bombings since September 23, according to the authorities. Around 1.2 million people have been displaced.
The government announced on Sunday that the start of the school year for 1.25 million students, from kindergarten to high school, would be postponed until November 4, “in the face of the danger that threatens” students and teachers.
In Israel, the October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures, including hostages who died or were killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Of the 251 people kidnapped, 97 are still hostages in Gaza, of whom 33 are considered dead.
The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation on Gaza, where Hamas took power in 2007, caused the deaths of 41,870 people, according to the latest report from the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health, whose data is considered reliable by the UN.
