Israel-Lebanon latest: Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa as Israel on high alert for 7 October anniversary
Israel authorities said they were on the lookout for attacks timed to coincide with the October 7 anniversary
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Hezbollah rockets hit Israel’s third-largest city of Haifa on the one-year anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attack, in the first direct strike on the northern city that evaded the military’s usually reliable air defence systems.
Hezbollah said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with a salvo of “Fadi 1” missiles. Two rockets hit Haifa and five hit Tiberias, according to Israeli media.
Israel is on high alert today for possible attacks, military spokesperson Admiral Daniel Hagari said. “We are ready with increased forces in anticipation for this day,” he added.
Thousands of Israelis are holding vigils and somber ceremonies to mark a year since Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 250 others hostage. The attack triggered a war in Gaza, where Israel killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run Strip.
Israel intensified its airstrikes on Gaza and Lebanon on the eve of the anniversary, with fireballs and loud booms seen over the darkened skyline of Beirut.
Palestinian officials said a strike on a mosque in Gaza earlier in the day killed at least 19 people.
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon ‘deeply concerned’ by Israeli military activities
The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement on Sunday it was deeply concerned by what it called Israel’s “recent activities” adjacent to the mission’s position inside Lebanon.
It came after Israeli air attacks battered Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday in the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
During the night, the blasts sent booms across Beirut and sparked flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometres away.
It was the single biggest attack of Israel’s assault on Beirut so far, witnesses and military analysts on local TV channels said.
“Last night was the most violence of all the previous nights. Buildings were shaking around us and at first I thought it was an earthquake. There were dozens of strikes - we couldn’t count them all - and the sounds were deafening,” said Hanan Abdullah, a resident of the Burj al-Barajneh area.
Israel responsible for record journalist death toll, says group
Israel is responsible for a record journalist death toll, the Committee Protect Journalists has said, adding that at least 128 journalists and media workers, all but five of them Palestinian, have been killed since 7 October 2023.
That is more journalists killed in the course of any year since they started documenting in 1992, the group added. All of the killings bar two were carried about the Israeli forces.
“By comparison, 56 journalists were killed in Iraq in 2006 – the next deadliest year. The targeted or indiscriminate killing of journalists, if committed deliberately or recklessly, is a war crime,” the group said in a statement.
It added that it found that at least five journalists were specifically targeted by Israel for their work and is investigating at least 10 more cases of deliberate targeting. Two Israeli journalists were killed in the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants.
Overnight Saturday another journalist - Hassan Hamad - was killed in north Gaza during a night of heavy Israeli strikes. Maha Hussaini - strategy director at Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor - said on X Hamad had received threats from Israeli numbers, via both text and calls, ordering him to stop filming prior to his death.
In pictures: Families of Israeli hostages hold event near Gaza
We’re stuck in the 7 October 2023, say family of Israeli hostages
The families of the hostages taken on 7 October last year into Gaza gathered on Saturday night just three kilometres from the enclave near the sites of the Hamas attack to demand the Israeli government sign a ceasefire deal immediately.
There they chanted “bring them home now” and held 365 seconds of silence to mark the number of days the remaining 100 or so hostages have been in Gaza.
Kobi Ben Ami, 54 the younger brother of Ohad, 55, who was speaking at the event, told The Independent the families were “stuck in the 7 October 2023" until their loved ones are brought home.
Ohad Ben Ami and his wife Raz, 57, were seized by Hamas militants from their home in Kibbutz Beer’i. The family only realised Ohad was among the hostages when a photo of him being dragged into Gaza in his underwear appeared on social media networks. Raz was released in an earlier prisoner-hostage swap after 54 gruelling days inside Gaza and her family say she is still suffering from medical complications.
“I’m still there in 7 October because it’s been a year and he is still not here,” Kobi said, explaining his house was attacked by militants on 7 October and he survived by hiding in his bomb shelter.
“As long as they are there in Gaza then we are there as well. We don’t have a routine or breaks all we do is work to get him freed,” he added .
“Then facts speak for themselves. We don’t know all the information we are not sitting in the government but the bottom line is it has been a year and they are still not home. As long as the hostages are not here it is the responsibility of the government.”
“People are dying every day - every minute we stand here could be the next murder.”
Israeli strikes batter Beirut in heaviest bombardment so far, witnesses say
Israeli air attacks battered Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday, the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah last month.
During the night, the blasts sent booms across Beirut and sparked flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometres away.
It was the single biggest attack of Israel‘s assault on Beirut so far, witnesses and military analysts on local TV channels said.
On Sunday a grey haze hung over the city and rubble was strewn across streets in the southern suburbs, while smoke columns rose over the area.
“Last night was the most violence of all the previous nights. Buildings were shaking around us and at first I thought it was an earthquake. There were dozens of strikes - we couldn’t count them all - and the sounds were deafening,” said Hanan Abdullah, a resident of the Burj al-Barajneh area in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Blast heard in Syria's Homs, cause being investigated, state news agency says
A blast was heard in a factory in the Syrian city of Homs, the state news agency reported on Sunday, adding that the cause is still being investigated.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced in Lebanon, says UN
Several injured in suspected shooting attack in southern Israel, police say
Israeli police have said that several people have been injured in a suspected shooting attack in the city of Beersheba in the country’s south, while the ambulance service says the attacker has been killed.
The ambulance service said a seriously injured woman was being treated at the scene while eight other people injured in the attack, including one in a moderate to serious condition, were receiving medical treatment in a nearby hospital.
Israeli ambassador invokes Mahsa Amini’s name in criticism of Iran regime
Israeli ambassador invokes Mahsa Amini’s name in criticism of Iran regime
Israel's ambassador to the UK invoked Mahsa Amini's name in her criticism of the Iranian regime as she defended strikes against Hezbollah. Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday’s (6 October) episode of her BBC show, Tzipi Hotovely said the world "needs to prevent [Iran's] nuclear abilities. "If this is what Iran is doing without nuclear abilities, can you imagine what this regime of terror, this regime that killed and executed Mahsa Amini... can do?" Ms Hotovely referenced the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran in 2022 after she was arrested for allegedly violating a mandatory headscarf law.
Israeli military issues new evacuation alerts for areas in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson issued new evacuation alerts on Sunday for residents of around 25 areas in southern Lebanon, calling on them to head immediately to the north of the Awali River.
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