Hezbollah fires rockets at Tel Aviv, year after Simhat Torah attack; IDF on alert at Gaza border
Report says troops preparing for possible Hamas rocket fire, attempt to carry out attack on Hebrew calendar anniversary of Oct. 7 atrocities
As Israelis began to mark the beginning of Simhat Torah Wednesday night, several rockets launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon triggered sirens in Tel Aviv and towns across central Israel.
The IDF said four rockets were launched in the attack. Two of the launches were intercepted, and one fell in an open area, the military said. The fourth rocket impacted in an undisclosed location.
A total of some 135 rockets were launched at Israel throughout the day, according to the IDF. The rocket attacks mostly targeted northern Israel. There were no reported casualties.
Palestinian media reported that either one of the rockets fired, or fragments from an interceptor, landed in the Palestinian village of Ras Atiya, near the West Bank security barrier.
Footage from the scene appeared to show damage to vehicles. A security source told Kan news that one Palestinian was lightly injured.
Hezbollah claimed in a statement that it had hit a military factory in the Tel Aviv suburbs.
הירי מלבנון למרכז: הפלסטינים מדווחים על נפילה/שברי יירוט בכפר ראס עטיה, דרומית לקלקיליה וסמוך לגדר ההפרדה. בתיעודים מהמקום נראה שנגרם נזק לכלי רכב.
לפי גורם ביטחוני: פלסטיני אחד נפצע קל pic.twitter.com/eWyI0qcH4O— Carmel Dangor כרמל דנגור (@carmeldangor) October 23, 2024
Meanwhile, the military ordered its troops along the Gaza Strip’s border to be on high alert amid concerns that the Hamas terror group will try to fire rockets or carry out an attack on the Hebrew calendar anniversary of its October 7, 2023 onslaught, which it launched on the Simhat Torah holiday last year, according to a TV report.
A year ago, the holiday was devastatingly marred by Hamas’s slaughter of 1,200 people, mostly civilians, as it took 251 people hostage to Gaza from southern Israel.
Similar preparations were made ahead of the Gregorian calendar anniversary earlier this month. The terror group, decimated by war and based in an enclave largely reduced to rubble, managed to fire a handful of rockets into Israel on October 7.
The October 7 rockets, fired at Israeli communities near the border and at the Tel Aviv area, were a small fraction of the firepower Hamas once possessed.
TV news airs footage of October 7 victims
Also on the anniversary, Channel 12 published photos and footage of some of the October 7 victims as they celebrated Sukkot and Simhat Torah one year ago, shortly before disaster befell them.
One photo showed then-nine-month-old Kfir Bibas being held under the Kibbutz Nir Oz sukkah last year. Bibas was kidnapped with his four-year-old brother Ariel and parents Shiri and Yarden. All four remain held in Gaza, with their fate unclear.
A video showed Yossi Sharabi, who was likely killed in an IDF strike while held in Gaza, celebrating Simhat Torah in Kibbutz Be’eri, hours before he was kidnapped.
Gadi Mozes, who is being held captive, was shown in a picture celebrating Sukkot with his family in Kibbutz Nir Oz in October 2023.
Liri Elbag, who was abducted in the attack, was also shown celebrating the holiday in a photo.
A video aired showed soldiers at the Nahal Oz military base celebrating Sukkot last year. The base was devastated in the attack, with many soldiers killed and kidnapped.
Hostage Ofer Calderon was shown celebrating Sukkot with his family in Kibbutz Nir Oz in an image.
Uriel Baruch, who was kidnapped and murdered in captivity, was shown celebrating Sukkot with his family in a picture.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
