Israel has held ceremonies to remember the victims of the mass killings and abductions carried out by Hamas on 7 October 2023, against a backdrop of continuing fighting in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
A year on from the attack – that saw some 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage – Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to stop such an assault happening again, saying Israel’s armed forces were “changing the security reality” of the region.
Since 7 October, nearly 42,000 people have been killed during Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
As the day of commemorations unfolded, Israel said it had intercepted more than 100 rockets fired by Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as projectiles launched by Yemen’s Houthis and from Hamas in Gaza.
Overnight, rocket warning sirens continued to sound in northern Israel, and several more town were declared closed military zones, as Israel looks set to expand its ground offensive across the Lebanon border.
On Tuesday morning, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Suhail Hussein Husseini, Hezbollah’s logistics commander, was killed in a “precise, intelligence-based strike in the area of Beirut” on Monday.
Hezbollah has not commented.Husseini was responsible for the budgeting and logistical management of Hezbollah’s most sensitive projects, including its war plans and other special operations, the IDF said.
The US has indicated that it supports targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon – but fears that what has been described as a limited operation by Israel could quickly turn into a larger-scale, prolonged conflict.
And as American and Israeli officials discuss Israel’s response to last week’s unprecedented Iranian missile attack, CIA director William Burns has warned that there is a “very real danger of a further regional escalation”.
Last October, gunmen from Hamas in Gaza broke through the border fence and rampaged through nearby Israeli villages, Kibbutzim, military posts and the Nova music festival.
On Monday, families of the hundreds killed and dozens of people taken hostage at the festival gathered at the site early for the first memorial event of the day.
Holding pictures of loved ones they listened to the last track played at the festival before Israeli President Isaac Herzog led a minute’s silence at 06:29, the moment that the attack began.