Israel on Saturday vowed no let-up in the military battle against Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, even as President Isaac Herzog said the country remains wounded by the October 7 Hamas attack. “We must continue to apply pressure on Hezbollah and do additional and continual damage to the enemy, without concessions and without respite,” Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said.
Hostages are still held captive in Gaza and residents displaced by ongoing fighting. “Our wounds still cannot fully heal because they are ongoing. Because hostages are still being tortured, executed, and dying in captivity,” Herzog said in a broadcast statement to mark a full year since the Hamas onslaught.
Dozens of protests and commemorations are set to take place ahead of the anniversary on Monday (October 7) of Hamas’s attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, as per an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,825 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, as per figures provided by the territory’s health ministry and described as reliable by the UN.
Here is all you need to know:
- Hezbollah said it launched rockets at a defence company in northern Israel in the latest round of escalation between the two sides since Israel intensified its bombing campaign last week. This comes amid reports that Hashem Safieddine, a man widely considered the potential successor of the slain Hassan Nasrallah, has been out of contact since Friday (October 4) and may have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut.
- Iran has threatened an “even stronger” reaction to any aggression as Israel readied its response to the country’s missile barrage earlier this week. “Our reaction to any attack by the Zionist regime is completely clear,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Damascus, where he met top officials including Tehran’s ally President Bashar al-Assad. “For every action, there will be a proportional and similar reaction from Iran, and even stronger.”
- Syrian President Bashar Assad praised Iran for firing nearly 200 missiles at Israel earlier this week saying it was a message to Israel that Tehran and its allies “can deter the enemy”. He said “resisting occupation, aggression and mass killings is a legitimate right”. He added that the Iran-led alliance known as Axis of Resistance will remain strong because of the backing of its people.
- Hezbollah further said an Israeli strike on a refugee camp in north Lebanon killed Hamas official Saeed Atallah Ali and his family. The early morning strike came a day after another Israeli airstrike cut off a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria, leaving two huge craters on either side of the road. Israel began a ground incursion on October 1 into Lebanon against the Iran-backed militant group. Its military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.
- The Israeli military said on Saturday its special forces were carrying out ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, destroying missiles, launchpads, watchtowers and weapons storage facilities. The military said troops also dismantled tunnel shafts that Hezbollah used to approach the Israeli border.
- Beirut’s southern suburbs were hit by 12 Israeli airstrikes early Saturday, including one that badly damaged a large hall Hezbollah has used to hold ceremonies. Later in the day, more strikes hit the area, along with southern and eastern Lebanon. At least six people were killed, government agencies said. Palestinian medical officials said Israeli strikes in northern and central Gaza on the same day killed at least nine people, including two children.
- Iraq’s interior ministry said the country has received 5,693 refugees from Lebanon. This comes after the head of the UN refugee agency said hundreds of thousands had been affected by Israeli bombardment and needed international support. UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said on X that “Lebanon faces a terrible crisis” as “hundreds of thousands of people are left destitute or displaced by Israeli air strikes”. “I have come here in solidarity with those affected, to support the humanitarian effort and to ask for more international help,” he said.
- Officials said almost 3,75,000 people have fled Lebanon for Syria in 2 weeks have crossed from Lebanon into Syria, fleeing Israeli bombardment, in less than two weeks. The government’s crisis management unit, citing figures from Lebanese General Security, said 3,74,621 people — Lebanese citizens and Syrians living in Lebanon — have crossed into Syria since September 23, when Israel intensified its air bombardment campaign in Lebanon.
- Thousands of protesters marched in London and other cities on Saturday calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon as the war in the Palestinian territory neared the one-year mark. At the start of a planned wave of protests worldwide, pro-Palestine supporters gathered in cities in the UK, France, South Africa, Ireland and Switzerland to demand an end to the conflict, which has killed nearly 42,000 people in Gaza.
- Commemorations for victims of the October 7 attack are also scheduled internationally, including ceremonies in London, Washington, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Berlin. An official anniversary ceremony will be held in Jerusalem on Monday. President Herzog will lead a memorial service at Sderot, one of the cities hardest hit during the onslaught by Palestinian militants.
(With agency inputs)
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