Situation at a glance: Anniversary of Hamas terror: Israel is fighting on all fronts

On the first anniversary of the terrorist attack on Israel by the Islamist Hamas, the sirens sounded again in the border area with the Gaza Strip. Four projectiles were fired from southern Gaza, three of which the military intercepted, the Israeli army said early in the morning. A projectile fell in an open area. Hamas launch pads and underground “terrorist infrastructure” across the Gaza Strip were being attacked, it said. While Israel’s retaliatory strike after Iran’s rocket attack last week was still a long time coming, Israel’s army again bombed Hezbollah positions in Lebanon during the night.

At the same time, the pro-Iranian Shiite militia fired volleys of rockets at, among other places, the port city of Haifa in northern Israel, as the army announced. Projectiles hit there despite defensive fire. According to the Times of Israel, five people were injured by shrapnel in the area. Meanwhile, Israeli troops are continuing their renewed ground offensive in the north of the Gaza Strip. “One year ago today, the history of our country was changed forever,” the Israeli army wrote on X early in the morning, while warning sirens wailed again in the border area with the Gaza Strip.

Commemorative events on the anniversary of the Hamas massacre

The evening before, the first memorial events for the victims of the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th last year began in Israel. Relatives of the almost 400 people killed at the Nova music festival gathered in Tel Aviv. “I’m still stuck on October 7th,” the mother of a murdered young woman was quoted as saying in Israeli media. “The world moves on, but for me time has stood still.” An Israeli whose nephew was kidnapped from the Nova festival and is believed to still be held in the Gaza Strip called on the government to reach an agreement with Hamas to release the hostages as quickly as possible, according to the Times of Israel.

Demonstrations also in Germany

More than a thousand people gathered at Tel Avi’s “Hostages’ Square.” Survivors, released hostages and relatives of those murdered spoke about their experiences. Thousands of people also took to the streets in several German cities on the eve of the anniversary. There was tumult at a pro-Palestine rally in Berlin. Today, demonstrations and commemorative events are planned again across the country.

On October 7, thousands of Hamas gunmen and other extremists from the Gaza Strip broke through the Israeli barrier to the coastal area, killing more than 1,200 people and kidnapping around 250 others as hostages to Gaza. This was the trigger for the war. Since then, around 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority. The number does not distinguish between fighters and civilians and is difficult to verify.

The UN Emergency Relief Office (OCHA) described the past 12 months in the Middle East as a “relentless tragedy”. Joyce Msuya, the acting UN emergency relief coordinator, said: “No statistics or words can fully convey the extent of the physical, psychological and societal destruction that has taken place.” Her office condemned the Hamas attack. Israel’s subsequent military strikes in the Gaza Strip would have triggered a catastrophe. Schools housing displaced families and hospitals have been repeatedly shelled. People lived with extreme deprivation, without sufficient food or medical care, it said.

Israel’s army continues to advance in the Gaza Strip

Despite calls for a ceasefire, Israel launched a new ground offensive in the north of the Gaza Strip. At the same time, Israel’s air force said it attacked a Hamas command center again during the night. It was said that night that she was in the center of the sealed-off coastal strip on the grounds of the Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital. In the same area, the army said it had attacked command centers the previous day that were located in a former school and a former mosque. The information could not be independently verified.

Hamas’s military wing has been defeated and the fight against its terrorist structures will continue, said Israel’s Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi. In a letter to his soldiers, he described October 7, 2023 as the day “we failed in our mission to protect the citizens of the State of Israel.” It is “not only a day of remembrance, but also a call for deep self-reflection,” Halevi wrote about the “admission of our mistakes and the obligation to learn from them.” Relatives of the hostages called for a demonstration today in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence. He wanted to give a speech to the nation on television.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for an arms embargo against Israel for the fighting in Gaza on Saturday, to which Netanyahu reacted angrily. The French presidential palace said Macron reiterated France’s unwavering commitment to Israel’s security in a phone call with Netanyahu. At the same time, he expressed his belief that the time for a ceasefire had come. However, the efforts of the mediators USA, Qatar and Egypt have been going in circles for months.

Fighting in Lebanon too

Referring to the fighting against the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, Halevi said the militia had been dealt a serious blow. “We are not stopping,” emphasized the army chief. “We are destroying the capabilities of our enemies and will ensure that those capabilities are not rebuilt so that October 7 is never repeated.” As the military announced during the night, warplanes attacked Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in the Lebanese capital Beirut. Command centers and other “terrorist infrastructure” of the pro-Iranian militia were also attacked, including weapons depots.

None of the information could be independently verified. According to authorities, at least six people were killed in an Israeli attack on the town of Kayfun in the Lebanon mountains. Another 13 were injured. Hezbollah, in turn, continued its shelling of northern Israel. The Israeli army announced during the night that projectiles could have hit the Haifa area. Pictures showed damage on a road. According to the army, additional rockets were intercepted. Others went down, it was said. One person was also reportedly injured in the northern city of Tiberias.

Flight ban in Iran lifted again

Meanwhile, Iran resumed civil air traffic at Tehran International Airport. “The situation has returned to normal and air traffic is running again,” a spokesman for Imam Khomeini Airport (IKA) told the Ilna news agency. The civil aviation authority had previously imposed a nationwide flight ban at short notice. Observers had feared that the authority’s decision that evening was made because of an impending Israeli counterattack. Israel had announced a “significant response” to Iran’s attack. Iran threatened a “significantly harsher” reaction in the event.