Israel will continue fighting, Netanyahu vows on anniversary of Hamas attack

Photo: Abir Sultan/Pool via Associated Press “We have defined the aims of the war and we are carrying them out. […] This is a sacred mission, we will not stop until we have accomplished it,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised message.

Michaël Blum – Agence France-Presse and Lisa Golden – Agence France-Presse respectively in Jerusalem and Beirut

Published at 12:31 PM Updated at 5:12 PM

• Middle East

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to continue the fight against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, calling it a “sacred mission,” on the first anniversary of the deadliest attack in Israel's history.

As Israel mourned, the Palestinian Islamist movements Hamas and Hezbollah fired salvos of rockets into Israeli territory, and the Israeli army carried out new strikes in Gaza and Lebanon.

In Tel Aviv, an evening ceremony with families and relatives of those killed or kidnapped in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, took place after an open memorial day in Reim (south), where at least 370 people were killed.

“It’s sad to see all these young people killed, as if they were chosen by a diabolical lottery,” said Odette Keilin Harlev, mother of Hila Keilin, who was killed at the Nova music festival in Reim.

Photo: John Wessels Agence France-Presse In the early morning in Israel, an emotional crowd kicked off ceremonies in Reim (south), where at least 370 people had been killed.

“We have defined the aims of the war and we are in the process of achieving them: to overthrow Hamas, to bring all the hostages home, the living and the dead. “This is a sacred mission, we will not stop until we complete it,” Netanyahu said in a televised message.

“We will continue to fight,” he added after earlier saying that Israel was “obliged to bring back” the hostages and was changing “the reality” on the ground so that there would be no more attacks like the one on October 7.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures, including hostages who died in captivity. Of the 251 people kidnapped by Hamas during the attack, 97 are still being held hostage in Gaza, 34 of whom have been declared dead by the army.

On the other side, the spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, Abu Obeida, promised a “long, painful and costly battle of attrition” for Israel, after describing the hostages’ situation as “very difficult.”

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Strikes on a hospital in Gaza and near Beirut

In the devastated and besieged Gaza Strip, the Israeli army continued its offensive, claiming to have struck the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah (center), which it said housed Hamas command centers.

In Lebanon, the Israeli army has again intensively bombed Hezbollah strongholds, the southern suburbs of Beirut and southern Lebanon, and said it wanted to target the “coastal zone” in the south of the country.

Photo: Agence France-Presse A woman walks past the crater that replaced a building after an overnight Israeli strike on the Kafaat neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs on Monday.

It also indicated that it had sent reinforcements to support two divisions already deployed in the south of the country, where it launched a ground offensive on September 30.

Vowing to continue to fight Israeli “aggression,” Hezbollah called Israel a “cancerous” entity that must be “eliminated.”

Houthi fire on Israel

The war in Gaza and Lebanon is accompanied by an escalation between Israel and Iran, an ally of Hamas and Hezbollah, while Israel has threatened to retaliate after the firing of 200 missiles on October 1 against its territory.

The head of US Central Command, General Erik Kurilla, spoke in Israel about the “continuing threat posed by Iran” and reiterated the United States’ “unwavering commitment” to the Israeli ally.

Iran called the October 7 attack a “turning point in the history” of the Palestinian struggle against Israel.

And Yemen’s Houthi rebels, also backed by Tehran, claimed responsibility for missile and drone strikes on Israel, which announced the “interception” of a missile.

Gaza Strip transformed into a “graveyard”

A A year after the start of a devastating Israeli retaliatory offensive in Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas, the head of the UN refugee agency (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said the Palestinian territory had been transformed into a “graveyard” and spoke of the “unspeakable suffering” of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

“It was a dark year. We lost many relatives, friends, our homes and our source of income,” said Ramzi Baker, a displaced person from Gaza in Deir al-Balah.

Photo: Bashar Taleb Agence France-Presse A man looks out over the devastated town of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.

Entire sections of the Gaza Strip have been reduced to rubble, nearly all of its 2.4 million residents have been displaced, and at least 41,909 Palestinians have been killed, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas government's Health Ministry, which the UN considers reliable.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza entered southern Israel, using explosives and bulldozers to breach the fence surrounding Gaza, killing indiscriminately in kibbutzim, military bases, and at the Nova festival site.

Western leaders have repeatedly stressed Israel’s right to defend itself, while affirming the Palestinian right to statehood and the need to end Israel’s decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Until “victory”

After weakening Hamas, the Israeli military shifted the bulk of its operations to Lebanon in mid-September, against Hezbollah, which opened a front on October 8 against Israel in support of Hamas.

Since October 2023, more than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, including more than a thousand since the intensification of Israeli bombardments on September 23, according to the authorities. More than a million people have been displaced, according to the same source.

Israel has promised to fight Hezbollah until “victory,” in order to allow the return to the northern border regions of the 60,000 residents displaced by the Lebanese movement’s incessant rocket fire.