Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to achieve victory on Sunday, saying his country’s military had “completely changed the reality” in the year since the October 7 Hamas attack, which left the country fighting two wars. Used to be.
Netanyahu told troops Israel will “win” as it battles militants in both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and prepared to attack Iran, nearly a year after an unprecedented attack by Palestinian Hamas militants sparked the Gaza war.
Israel’s army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said that, a year later, “we have defeated the military wing of Hamas”.
Netanyahu pledged to “crush and destroy” the militants when fighting began last October, but troops have returned to several areas of Gaza where they previously conducted operations against Hamas, but the militants are trying to regroup. Found out.
In late September Israel turned its attention north, stepping up military action against Iran-backed Hezbollah, which was regularly sending rockets across the border from Lebanon in support of Hamas.
“A year ago, we suffered a terrible shock. In the last 12 months, we have completely changed the reality,” Netanyahu said during a visit to the Lebanon border, according to his office.
Hamas on Sunday described the October 7 attack as “glorious” and said Palestinians were “writing a new history with their resistance”.
According to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures, their attack killed 1,205 people, mostly civilians, including hostages who died in captivity. Dozens of other hostages are still being held.
After all, 370 people were killed in just one place, Nova Rave in the Negev desert, the memory of which was commemorated in Tel Aviv on Sunday with candles, prayers and music.
destroyed, displaced
In northern Gaza, the army said it had surrounded the Jabaliya area after signs that Hamas was rebuilding there despite a year of airstrikes and fighting.
Rescue workers said 17 people, including nine children, were killed in Israeli air strikes on the area on Sunday.
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 deemed reliable by the United Nations.
Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced and much of the housing and other infrastructure in the area has been destroyed.
Despite increased fighting in Lebanon since late September and threats 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 to the entire region.” . According to Netanyahu’s office.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati appealed to the international community to pressure Israel for a ceasefire.
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said in a pre-recorded interview that Washington “will not stop” pressuring Israel and Arab leaders to agree to a Gaza ceasefire.
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 that the fighting could “push the region and the world into prolonged conflict”.
Such appeals, and efforts by mediators, failed to secure a cease-fire and hostage-release agreement in Gaza. Netanyahu’s critics accuse him of obstructing such a deal.
Israel is on high alert ahead of the October 7 anniversary, which the military says could lead to “attacks on the home front.”
murder of policeman
At the Beersheba central bus station in southern Israel, a border policeman was killed and 10 other people were injured, first responders said. Police described it as a suspected “terrorist” attack and said the attacker had also been killed.
Official Lebanese media reported four Israeli strikes on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold late Sunday, shortly after the Israeli military’s latest call for residents to leave the area.
Israel’s military said it attacked weapons storage facilities and infrastructure while taking measures “to minimize the risk of harming civilians.”
In a later statement, he said the latest attacks “hit Hezbollah terrorist bases 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 Kifoun, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Beirut.
It said 25 people had been killed in Israeli attacks across the country a day earlier.
Hezbollah said on Sunday it launched attack drones toward a military base near the northern Israeli city of Haifa. It later said it had targeted another nearby base with a barrage of rockets.
The Israeli military said the rockets fired from northern Gaza had entered Israel, one of which was intercepted and the rest falling in open areas.
UN peacekeepers accused Israeli forces of compromising their security by acting “immediately close” to one of their positions in southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL previously said it had rejected an Israeli request to transfer some of its peacekeepers.
-Exodus of foreigners-
Israel, which launched a ground operation in Lebanon last Monday, says its aim is to allow thousands of Israelis displaced by a Hezbollah rocket attack in northern Israel last year to return home.
Tehran, which supports armed groups across the Middle East, fired about 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday in revenge for Israeli killings of militant leaders including Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, have said Israel would respond to Iran’s missile attacks, most of which were intercepted by the country’s sophisticated air defenses.
Tasnim news agency quoted an informed source as saying that Iran has prepared its plan to respond to a possible Israeli attack.
Tehran’s aviation body announced that flights at some Iranian airports were suspended on Sunday, citing “operational restrictions”.
More than 1,110 people have been killed in attacks across Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Lebanon’s education director general, Imad Achkar, said on Sunday that 40 percent of Lebanon’s 1.25 million school students have been displaced by Israel’s attacks.
Many countries are evacuating their citizens from Lebanon.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday that 26 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a mosque-turned-shelter in central Deir al-Balah. Israel said that it has targeted Hamas terrorists.
Ahead of the anniversary of October 7, thousands of protesters marched in cities around the world over the weekend demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
