Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: ‘We will win’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed victory and said his country’s military “completely transformed reality” in the year since Hamas’s October 7 attack, which has left the country fighting two wars.

Netanyahu told troops Israel “will win” as it battles militants in both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and prepares to strike Iran, almost exactly a year since the unprecedented attack by Palestinian Hamas militants sparked the Gaza war.

Israel’s army chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said that, one year on, “we have defeated the military wing of Hamas”.

Netanyahu had pledged to “crush... and destroy” the militants as fighting began last October, but troops have returned to several areas across Gaza where they had previously conducted operations against Hamas, only to find militants regrouping.

In late September Israel turned its focus north, intensifying military action against Iran-backed Hezbollah which had been routinely sending rockets over the border from Lebanon in support of Hamas.

“A year ago, we suffered a terrible blow. Over the past 12 months, we have completely transformed reality,” Netanyahu said during a visit to the Lebanon border, according to his office.

Hamas on Sunday called the 7 October attack “glorious” and said the Palestinians were “writing a new history with their resistance”.

Their attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity. Dozens of other hostages are still held.

At last 370 people were killed at one location alone, the Nova rave in the Negev desert, which was commemorated with candles, prayer and music in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

Destroyed, displaced 

In northern Gaza, the military said it had encircled the Jabaliya area after indications Hamas was rebuilding there despite a year of air strikes and fighting.

Rescuers said 17 people, including nine children, were killed on Sunday by Israeli air strikes on the area.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,870 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry and described as reliable by the UN.

Most of Gaza’s population is displaced and much of the territory’s housing and other infrastructure destroyed.

Despite fighting which has escalated in Lebanon since late September, and the threat of war with Iran, Netanyahu told French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call that Israel’s actions in Lebanon would help bring “stability, security and peace in the entire region”, according to Netanyahu’s office.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati appealed to the international community to push Israel for a ceasefire.

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said in a pre-recorded interview that Washington was “not going to stop” putting pressure on Israel and Arab leaders to agree a Gaza truce.

The leaders of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates called for intensified international efforts to stop both wars, while Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani warned the fighting could “plunge the region and the world into prolonged conflicts”.

Such appeals, and efforts by mediators, failed to secure a truce and hostage-release deal in Gaza. Critics of Netanyahu accused him of obstructing such a deal.

Israel is on high alert ahead of the 7 October anniversary, which the military said could lead to “attacks on the home front”.

Policewoman killed

In southern Israel’s Beersheba central bus station, a border policewoman was killed and 10 other people injured, first responders said. Police called it a suspected “terrorist” attack and said the assailant was also killed.

Official Lebanese media late Sunday reported four Israeli strikes on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold, shortly after the latest calls by Israel’s military for residents to leave the area.

“They are not hitting military targets, but civilian ones,” shopkeeper Mehdi Zeiter, 60, said earlier.

Israel’s military said it struck weapons storage facilities and infrastructure while taking measures “to mitigate the risk of harming civilians”.

Late Sunday, Lebanon’s health ministry said six people were killed and 13 wounded in an Israeli strike on the village of Keyfoun, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Beirut.

It said Israeli strikes around the country killed 25 people the day before.

Hezbollah said on Sunday it launched attack drones towards a military base near the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

Israel’s military said rockets fired from northern Gaza had crossed into Israel, with one intercepted and the rest falling on open areas.

United Nations peacekeepers accused the Israeli military of compromising their safety by operating “immediately adjacent” to one of their positions in south Lebanon.

UNIFIL previously said it had rejected an Israeli request to relocate some of its peacekeepers.

Foreigners flee

Israel, which began ground operations in Lebanon on Monday, says it aims to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced over the past year by Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel to return home.

Tehran, which backs armed groups across the Middle East, on Tuesday launched around 200 missiles at Israel in revenge for Israeli killings of militant leaders including Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Israeli officials including Netanyahu have said Israel will respond to Iran’s missile barrage, most of which was intercepted by the country’s sophisticated air defences.

Iran has prepared its own plan to respond to a possible Israeli attack, Tasnim news agency reported, citing an informed source.

Flights at some Iranian airports were suspended on Sunday, Tehran’s aviation body announced, citing “operational restrictions”.

Across Lebanon, strikes have killed more than 1,110 people since 23 September, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Lebanon’s Director General of Education Imad Achkar said on Sunday that 40 percent of Lebanon’s 1.25 million school pupils had been displaced by Israel’s strikes.

Numerous countries, including Australia, the United States, Brazil, China and Russia have been evacuating their nationals from Lebanon.

Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday an Israeli strike on a mosque-turned-shelter in central Deir el-Balah killed 26 people. Israel said it had targeted Hamas militants.

Ahead of the 7 October anniversary, tens of thousands of protesters marched in cities around the world over the weekend calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.