Middle East updates: Israel surrounded by ‘ring of fire’: Ambassador
Israel’s military has told civilians in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza to evacuate, warning that recent attacks “will be met with extreme force”.
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One year on from the October 7 attack, violence continues to rage in the Middle East.
The unprecedented attack by Hamas militants in Israel resulted in the death of 1205 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,870 people in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the territory’s health ministry.
The one-year anniversary comes as Israel engages in a fresh round of bombing in Lebanon against Iranian-backed Hezbollah and prepare to retaliate against Iran following a missile barrage last week, raising fears of an even wider conflict.
Follow for updates on the Middle Eastern conflict.
Israel orders civilians to evacuate
Israel’s military has warned civilians in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza to evacuate.
IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the most recent rocket attack launched on central Israel “will be met with extreme force”.
“Because of Hamas’ terrorist acts … you must evacuate these areas immediately and move to the humanitarian area in al-Mawasi,” he said. Adraee.
Two injured in Tel Aviv attack, Hamas reveals death toll
The IDF has confirmed five projectiles were fired at Tel Aviv from the Khan Younis area in Gaza today, wounding two civilians.
Hamas has confirmed they were responsible for the attack, which came after rockets were launched at sunrise on October 7.
The Israeli ambulance service said that two women in their 30s were “lightly wounded” after being struck by shrapnel.
It came as Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry revealed some 41,909 people have been killed since Israel began its offensive almost a year ago.
A further 97,303 have been injured with approximately 986 medical staff killed in the bloody conflict.
Israel surrounded by ‘ring of fire’: Ambassador
Israel’s ambassador to the UK said her country is now surrounded by a “ring of fire” with adversaries pointing in every direction.
Tzipi Hotovely says the effects of the October 7 attacks have had a powerful, lingering effect on the Israeli community. Commemorations and rallies are being held across the world today for the victims of the terror attack.
“Our hearts are still bleeding,” she said on Radio 4.
“This thing happened because we were surrounded by this ring of fire created by Iran that wanted to create proxies that can attack Israel simultaneously, from the north, from Hezbollah, from the east, from the south, from Hamas.”
Iran has now waded into the conflict, with analysts warning the current situation could explode into a wider regional conflict at any moment.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army has revealed it has deployed another division to participate in operations in Lebanon.
It is now the third troop grouping at division strength to be used in the ground fight against Hezbollah.
“The soldiers of the 91st Division began localised and targeted operational activity in southern Lebanon,” a statement from the army read.
Israeli hostage forum announces death of captive held in Gaza
An Israeli campaign group on Monday announced the death of a hostage held in Gaza as the country marked the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Idan Shtivi, 28, was abducted from the site of the Nova music festival, and his “body is still held captive by Hamas”.
The forum said Shtivi had just arrived at the festival site when the attack began.
“On October 7, Idan arrived at the Nova Festival in the early morning to document his friends’ performances and workshops,” the forum said in a statement.
“However, he never made it inside. When the attack began, Idan helped two strangers he had just met escape from the site. This selfless choice ultimately led to his abduction.”
‘Without precedent’: Report says anti-semitic incidents rise 324 per cent
Antisemitic incidents in Australia have skyrocketed by more than 300 per cent in the past year, leaving the Jewish community feeling “under siege”.
The unprecedented surge has involved physical assaults, offensive graffiti, bomb threats at synagogues and verbal abuse in public.
Co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin, has urged all Australians to confront the issue as parts of the country’s Jewish community pay respect to the October 7 victims.
“These are numbers without precedent in this country and an increase without parallel anywhere in the world,” he says.
“It is incumbent on all Australians to fight this hatred, it cannot be that it is the Jewish community alone who stands up to this.”
The council’s report reveals over 1800 antisemitic incidents over the past 365 days — representing a 324 per cent increase.
Among the documented cases is a violent attack on a Jewish man in Sydney’s Arncliffe, who was beaten and left with serious injuries after removing a pro-Palestine protest poster.
A convoy in Sydney shouting antisemitic slurs, attacks on Jewish students at universities, and assaults during anti-antisemitism rallies have also come under the radar of the Australian Jewry’s report.
The Jewish Council of Australia has agreed that antisemitism is a serious issue, but question the reliability of the data presented by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
“I really object to this idea that the free Palestine movement is somehow inherently antisemitic,” the group’s executive officer, Max Kaiser said.
“A lot of the university encampments have involved Jewish organisers and Jewish speakers.”
Missiles launched at Israel during October 7 commemorations
The Israeli military said Monday that at least four projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip just minutes after the country began to formally commemorate last year’s October 7 attacks.
“Following the sirens that sounded at 6:31am in several communities near the Gaza Strip, four projectiles were identified crossing from the southern Gaza Strip.
“Three of the projectiles were intercepted by the IAF (air force) and a fallen projectile was identified in an open area,” the military said in a statement.
The Israeli military says it is attacking “targets and launchers” operated by Hamas in Gaza today, which it describes as an “immediate threat” to civilians.
IDF hits multiple Hezbollah targets in Beirut
The IDF said it struck multiple Hezbollah targets in Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut on Sunday evening, ahead of the anniversary of the October 7 attack.
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, it said the latest strikes had “struck Hezbollah terrorist targets and weapons storage facilities in Beirut”.
Earlier on Sunday evening, Israel military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued an “urgent warning” to the residents of the southern Beirut suburb of Burj al-Barajneh and Hadath to leave.
“You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, and the IDF (Israeli military) will operate against them in the near future,” he added in a statement on X.
Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford, currently in Beirut, reported “large plumes of smoke” and “big explosions” had lit up the sky.
“We have seen real intense bombing over the past two weeks but that has moved up a gear or two over the past few days,” she told Sky News UK.
Rockets hit Israeli port city
Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at an Israeli military base near the northern port city of Haifa on Sunday, the third attack on a military position in the area in one day.
Hezbollah fighters launched “a salvo of Fadi 1 rockets at the Carmel base south of Haifa,” the group said in a statement, having earlier reported two attacks on another base also south of Haifa.
Israeli media is reporting that at least 10 people have been injured in the attack in Haifa – home to nearly 300,000 people.
Israel Police said officers and police bomb disposal experts are addressing multiple sites and managing debris from the rockets. It noted some buildings have been damaged.
The group dedicated the attack to its leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs last month.
The IDF shared footage of what appears to be debris scattered on a road in Haifa following the attacks.
“Haifa after being struck by Hezbollah rockets on the night before #October7,” it captioned footage on X.
The IDF earlier said five projectiles which crossed Lebanese territory were identified and attempts were made to intercept them.
It confirmed Hezbollah had fired over 120 projectiles across the border Sunday.
Military and security analyst Elijah Magnier warned the attack sends a clear message to Israel.
“Targeting the harbour, it’s a different message that Hezbollah is sending to the Israelis and [it] is saying that they can cause even further damage, not only on the military infrastructure that is in Haifa but also on the chemical products here,” Mr Magner told Al Jazeera.
“Imminent catastrophe”
The latest violence could lead to an “imminent catastrophe” in the Middle East, the United Nations special co-ordinator for Lebanon has warned.
“With the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: there is NO military solution that will make either side safer,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert wrote in a post on X.
19yo policewoman killed in Israel shooting
A young policewoman has been killed and 10 others injured in a suspected terror attack in Israel on Saturday local time.
Border policewoman Shira Chaya Suslik, 19, was killed after a gunman open fired at a bus station in the Israeli city of Beershebain, local authorities said.
Police called it a suspected terrorist attack and said the assailant was killed.
Israel’s Transport Minister Miri Regev called for the families of “terrorists” to be deported in a statement on social media following the attack.
“The time has come for a deterrent punishment to prevent the attacks on Israeli territory,” she wrote on X.
Israeli PM says: ‘We will win’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday his country’s military “completely transformed reality” in the year since Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Netanyahu told troops Israel “will win” as it battles militants in both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and prepares to strike Iran, almost exactly a year since the unprecedented attack by Palestinian Hamas militants sparked the Gaza war.
In late September, Israel turned its focus north, intensifying military action against Iran-backed Hezbollah which had been sending rockets over the border from Lebanon in support of Hamas for nearly 12 months.
“A year ago, we suffered a terrible blow. Over the past 12 months, we have completely transformed reality,” Netanyahu told troops during a visit to the Lebanon border, his office said.
“The whole world admires the blows you are delivering to our enemies, and I salute you”, he said.
“Together, we will fight, and together we will win – with God’s help.”
October 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
Commemorations for the October 7 attack began in Israel’s Tel Aviv on Sunday at a ceremony to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas onslaught at the Nova music festival.
Picture of those killed appeared on a screen at the entrance to the ceremony, as hundreds gathered to light candles at a makeshift shrine, leave handwritten notes or simply embrace each other.
“Coming to this event one year after this terrible massacre that happened on October 7, it’s very touching, it’s very breathtaking,” said one of the event’s organisers Solly Laniado.
“Three days ago, we were not even going to hold the event at all,” he said, citing the deluge of rocket warnings and last week’s missile attack on Tel Aviv that have left many people on edge and large parts of the usually vibrant city empty.
“It’s a difficult day,” said Omri Sasi, 35, one of the producers of last year’s festival who survived the attack.
By his own estimate he lost roughly 50 friends that day, including an uncle, a pregnant cousin and her husband.
The two-day festival in the fields around Kibbutz Reim was just beyond the Gaza border in southern Israel and attracted over 3,000 attendees from October 6 and 7.
At least 370 people were killed at the Nova rave in the Negev desert, making it the deadliest location during the October 7 attack.
The attack was part of an onslaught of violence unleashed by Palestinian Hamas militants that resulted in the deaths of 1205 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on the latest official Israeli figures.
Some 251 people were captured and taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip, of whom 97 are still held captive in the coastal territory, including 37 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,870 people in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the territory’s health ministry and described as reliable by the United Nations.
– With AFP
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