Monday, October 7, 2024 -Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Sunday vowed to achieve victory and said his country’s military “completely transformed reality” in the year since Hamas’s October 7 attack, which has left the country fighting two wars.
Netanyahu told troops Israel “will win” as
it battles militants in both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and prepares to strike
Iran, about a year since the unprecedented attack by Palestinian Hamas
militants sparked the Gaza war.
Israel’s army chief, Lieutenant General
Herzi Halevi said that, one year on, “we have defeated the military wing of
Hamas”.
Netanyahu had pledged to “crush… and
destroy” the militants as fighting began last October, but troops have returned
to several areas across Gaza where they had previously conducted operations
against Hamas, only to find militants regrouping.
In late September Israel turned its focus
north, intensifying military action against Iran-backed Hezbollah, which had
been routinely sending rockets over the border from Lebanon in support of
Hamas.
“A year ago, we suffered a terrible blow.
Over the past 12 months, we have completely transformed reality,” Netanyahu
said during a visit to the Lebanon border, according to his office.
Hamas on Sunday called the October 7 attack
“glorious” and said the Palestinians were “writing a new history with their
resistance”.
Their attack resulted in the deaths of
1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on
Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity. Dozens
of other hostages are still held.
At last 370 people were killed at one
location alone, the Nova rave in the Negev desert, which was commemorated with
candles, prayer and music in Tel Aviv on Sunday.
– Destroyed, displaced –
In northern Gaza, the military said it had
encircled the Jabaliya area after indications Hamas was rebuilding there
despite a year of air strikes and fighting.
Rescuers said 17 people, including nine
children, had been killed on Sunday by Israeli air strikes on the area.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has
killed at least 41,870 people, the majority of them civilians, according to
figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry and described as
reliable by the UN.
Most of Gaza’s population is displaced and
much of the territory’s housing and other infrastructure destroyed.
Despite fighting, which has escalated in
Lebanon since late September, and the threat of war with Iran, Netanyahu told
French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call that Israel’s actions in
Lebanon would help bring “stability, security and peace in the entire region”,
according to Netanyahu’s office.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati
appealed to the international community to push Israel for a ceasefire.
US Vice President and Democratic
presidential candidate Kamala Harris said in a pre-recorded interview that
Washington was “not going to stop” pressuring Israel and Arab leaders to agree
a Gaza truce.
The leaders of Jordan and the United Arab
Emirates called for intensified international efforts to stop both wars. Iraqi
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani warned the fighting could “plunge the
region and the world into prolonged conflicts”.
Such appeals, and efforts by mediators,
failed to secure a truce and hostage-release deal in Gaza. Critics of Netanyahu
accuse him of obstructing such a deal.
Israel has been on high alert in the run-up
to the October 7 anniversary, which the military said could lead to “attacks on
the home front”.
– Policewoman killed –
In southern Israel’s Beersheba central bus
station, a border policewoman was killed and 10 other people injured, first
responders said. Police called it a suspected “terrorist” attack, adding that
the assailant had also been killed.
Official Lebanese media late Sunday reported
four Israeli strikes on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold, shortly after the
latest calls by Israel’s military for residents to leave the area.
Israel’s military said it struck weapons
storage facilities and infrastructure while taking measures “to mitigate the
risk of harming civilians”.
In a later statement, they said the latest
strikes had “struck Hezbollah terrorist targets and weapons storage facilities
in Beirut”.
Late Sunday, Lebanon’s health ministry said
six people were killed and 13 wounded in an Israeli strike on the village of
Keyfoun, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Beirut.
It said Israeli strikes around the country
killed 25 people the day before.
Hezbollah said Sunday it launched attack drones towards a military base near
the northern Israeli city of Haifa. It later said it had targeted a second base
nearby with a salvo of rockets.
Israel’s military said rockets fired from
northern Gaza had crossed into Israel, with one intercepted and the rest
falling on open areas.
UN peacekeepers accused the Israeli
military of compromising their safety by operating “immediately adjacent” to
one of their positions in south Lebanon.
UNIFIL previously said it had rejected an
Israeli request to relocate some of its peacekeepers.
– Foreigners flee –
Israel, which began ground operations in
Lebanon last Monday, says it aims to allow tens of thousands of Israelis
displaced over the past year by Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel to
return home.
Tehran, which backs armed groups across the
Middle East, on Tuesday launched around 200 missiles at Israel in revenge for
Israeli killings of militant leaders including Hezbollah chief Hassan
Nasrallah.
Israeli officials including Netanyahu have
said Israel will respond to Iran’s missile barrage, most of which was
intercepted by the country’s sophisticated air defences.
Iran has prepared its own plan to respond to
a possible Israeli attack, Tasnim news agency reported, citing an informed
source.
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