Hamas attack: Israel is on high alert and preparing to retaliate ahead of the anniversary of the Hamas attack

The warning came as Israel was embroiled in an intensifying war with the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which military chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said would be hit “without concession or respite.”

Ahead of Monday’s somber anniversary, military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a televised news conference: “We are prepared with increased forces for this day” when there could be “attacks on the home front.”

The Palestinian group’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures and including hostages killed in captivity.

A year later, the war in Gaza continues as Israel has shifted its focus north to Lebanon and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

The Israeli military said it had killed around 440 Hezbollah fighters “from the ground and from the air” since Monday, when troops began “targeted” ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, marking a year of Hezbollah rocket fire on northern Israel to get home to return. Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Iran a “continuing threat” after Tehran, which backs armed groups across the Middle East, fired around 200 rockets into Israel on Tuesday in revenge for Israeli killings of top militant leaders.

“Duty” to answer

The rocket attack killed a Palestinian in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and damaged an Israeli air base, according to satellite images.

It came on the same day that Israeli ground forces began their attacks on Lebanon after days of intense attacks on Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon.

An Israeli military official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly that the army was “preparing a response” to the Iranian attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted that Iran had fired “hundreds of rockets” into Israeli territory twice since April.

“Israel has the duty and the right to defend itself and respond to these attacks, and we will do that,” he said in a statement.

Critics of Netanyahu accuse him of hindering efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages still held by Hamas.

A senior Hezbollah source said Saturday the group had lost contact with Hashem Safieddine, widely considered the next Hezbollah leader, following airstrikes in Beirut.

The movement has yet to name a new leader after Israel assassinated Hassan Nasrallah in a massive attack in the Lebanese capital late last month.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that “resistance in the region will not subside.”

New attacks on Hamas

Hezbollah said its fighters faced Israeli troops in Lebanon’s southern border region and claimed early Sunday that they had repelled an attempted Israeli incursion into a border village.

The Israeli military said on Saturday it attacked militants at a mosque in Bint Jbeil. Frequent rocket fire was also reported from Lebanon, while Hezbollah claimed a rocket attack on the Ramat David air base in northern Israel and on a “military industrial plant” near the Israeli coastal town of Acre.

Hamas said Israeli strikes killed two of its operatives in northern and eastern Lebanon on Saturday, which the Israeli military confirmed.

One of them was hit near Tripoli, Hamas said, the first such attack in the northern area.

“Endless Nightmare”

On busy Hamra Street in central Beirut, Salma Salman said she camped with her seven-year-old twin daughters for almost two weeks.

“We are living in a terrible, never-ending nightmare,” she said.

Late Saturday, Israel issued a new order to evacuate residents of southern Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said early Sunday that “more than 30” Israeli strikes hit southern Beirut and its outskirts overnight.

AFP correspondents in Beirut heard several explosions and saw smoke rising in southern Beirut.

More than 1,110 people have died in the wave of attacks on Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon since September 23, according to a figure based on official figures.

In Lebanon, the head of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, said the country was “in a terrible crisis” and warned: “Hundreds of thousands of people are being left destitute or displaced by Israeli airstrikes.”

The Israeli bombings have put at least four hospitals in Lebanon out of action, according to the facilities.

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it had rejected a request from the Israeli military to relocate “some of our positions” in southern Lebanon.

Irish President Michael Higgins, whose country has peacekeepers on the mission, said Israel was demanding “the withdrawal of the entire UNIFIL…” which he called an “insult to the most important global institution.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who visited Damascus on Saturday after a stop in Beirut, renewed his call for ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon and threatened Israel with an “even stronger” response to any attack on Iran.

French President Emmanuel Macron said it was time “for us to stop supplying weapons to the fight in Gaza,” adding that France was not supplying weapons.

He also criticized Israel’s decision to send ground troops to Lebanon.

Unhealed wounds

Mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt tried unsuccessfully for months to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the release of 97 hostages still held in Hamas-controlled territory.

Gaza’s Civil Defense Authority said on Sunday that 21 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a mosque-turned-shelter in central Deir al-Balah, while the Israeli military said it had targeted Hamas militants .

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,825 people in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians. This is according to figures from the territory’s Ministry of Health, described as reliable by the United Nations.

In the lead-up to October 7, thousands took part in pro-Palestinian rallies in London, Paris, Cape Town and other cities.

Herzog, the Israeli president, said his country’s Oct. 7 wounds “still have not fully healed.”