Israel marks anniversary of Hamas attack as conflict escalates

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On Monday, Israelis marked the first anniversary of the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked a devastating war in Gaza that has escalated into a multi-front conflict and threatens to destabilize the entire region.

The following year, fighting spread throughout the Middle East. Israeli forces fought firefights with militants in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, launched a heavy bombing campaign and a ground offensive in Lebanon and were on the verge of a major conflict with Iran.

Violence continued on Monday, with Israel bombing targets across the Gaza Strip to thwart what the military said was an “imminent” threat from rocket fire and launching further attacks against the militant Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon.

Ceremonies in southern Israel to mark the anniversary of Hamas’ attack began at 6:29 a.m., the same time the group launched its attack last year. Israeli President Isaac Herzog laid a wreath at the site of the Nova music festival in Re’im, one of the centers of Hamas’ attack.

“This is a scar on humanity,” he said. “It’s a scar on the earth.”

Two minutes after the ceremony began, Hamas fired four rockets into Israel from Gaza. The rockets were intercepted, but those attending the vigil in Kfar Aza, one of the kibbutzim attacked by Hamas last year, were sent to shelters. Later on Monday, rockets fired from Gaza triggered sirens in Tel Aviv.

More vigils and events are scheduled to take place across the country on Monday.

Hamas’ attack on October 7 was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. According to Israeli officials, their militants killed 1,200 people and took another 250 people hostage.

More than 100 people are still being held in Gaza, although Israeli officials said not all were believed to be alive. Relatives of hostages gathered outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem on Monday and observed a minute’s silence.

In response to Hamas’ attack, Israel launched a massive assault on Gaza, killing nearly 42,000 people, displacing most of its 2.3 million residents and fueling a humanitarian disaster in the enclave, according to Palestinian officials.

On Sunday, Israeli forces launched a new offensive in Jabalia, They bombed the northern Gaza neighborhood and then encircled it. Officials said Hamas was regrouping in the area where Israel has carried out several major operations during the war.

Despite the increase in fighting in Gaza, Israel has in recent weeks increasingly concentrated its forces on the border with Lebanon, where it has been engaged in a firefight with Hezbollah since the militant group began firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas last October .

Last week, Israel launched a ground offensive against Hezbollah after a devastating bombing raid decimated the group’s chain of command – including the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah – killing more than 1,000 people and displacing hundreds of thousands.

Israeli forces bombed more targets in Beirut overnight following a series of attacks on Sunday. Data from Acled, which mapped the attacks, suggested it was the most intense night in Israel’s two-week air campaign.

In an indication that Israel is also stepping up its ground offensive in Lebanon, the Israeli military said on Monday that soldiers from a third division – the 91st – had joined the fighting.

Meanwhile, Israeli medics said they treated 10 people for injuries and distress after rockets fired from Lebanon landed in Haifa and Tiberias on Sunday evening.

The intensifying hostilities have also attracted Iran, which fired 180 ballistic missiles into Israel last week in what it said was a response to the assassination of Nasrallah and the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.

Netanyahu announced retaliation for the rocket attack, and the country’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Sunday that the response would be “in the manner of our choosing, at the time and place of our choosing.”