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The Times of Israel liveblogged Monday’s events as they unfolded.
Harris plants tree at home in memory of Oct. 7 victims, vows to never forget
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, right, and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff plant a memorial tree on the grounds of the Vice President's Residence in Washington on October 7, 2024, to honor the victims and mark one year since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
US Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff plant a pomegranate tree at their official residence, in memory of the victims of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught on the one-year anniversary of the attack.
In remarks before the tree-planting, Harris notes that the victims include 46 Americans, among them a singer from Missouri who died shielding her son from bullets, an academic and peace activist who studied in Seattle and was the grandson of Holocaust survivors, and a dancer from California who was killed at the Nova music festival alongside her fiancée.
“Today, I know many Jews will be reciting and reflecting on the Jewish prayer for mourning, the Kaddish. The words of the prayer are not about death. It is a prayer about our enduring belief in God, even in our darkest moments. So as we reflect on the horrors of October 7, let us please be reminded that we cannot lose faith.”
Harris pledges never to forget October 7, to work to ensure that such an attack can never be repeated and to ensure that Israel and Jewish people globally are secure.
She reiterates her commitment to releasing the hostages through a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and to relieve the “immense suffering” of Palestinians living there.
The vice president says a pomegranate tree was chosen because it symbolizes hope and righteousness in Judaism. The tree will be a reminder to her successors of the strength and endurance of the Jewish people, she adds.
Speaking briefly after Harris, Emhoff says he is still “filled with pain and despair” over what unfolded one year ago. “October 7 hit us hard as a community, and it still does,” he says noting that he constantly thinks about the hostages and is praying for their return and for the war to end.
Sirens, loud booms sound in Tel Aviv after rocket fire from Lebanon
Incoming rocket sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and other central towns a short time ago, following rocket fire from Lebanon, the military says.
Loud booms were heard in the Tel Aviv area.
The IDF says it is looking into the details.
Smotrich said to urge military rule in Gaza, renewed settlement, as way to rescue hostages
Families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza and activists protest for their release outside the Defense Ministry Headquarters in Tel Aviv, October 7, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Amid reports that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has renewed contact with Qatari mediators and has not softened his conditions for a hostage-ceasefire deal, Channel 12 reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a security consultation yesterday that Sinwar will compromise when Israel has dismantled the Iranian “axis of evil.”
The TV report, which relates to a high-level security consultation convened by Netanyahu last night, also cites far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich saying that the only means to achieve a hostage deal and bring home the hostages is to install a military administration and build settlements in Gaza.
Channel 12 also says families of several hostages held in Gaza have been told recently by Israeli defense officials that the conditions in which their loved ones are being held are worsening and that their captors are more “trigger happy.”
Most of the living hostages are now being held in “improvised tunnels,” where it is hard to breathe, without electricity, showers, or toilets, the report says, citing comments by some families who tonight held a demonstration outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv. The report does not name the families that conveyed this information.
The families also say they have been told that “additional cages” have been found where hostages “confronted their captors,” the report says.
Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate lights up with Israeli flag, ‘Bring them home now’
A ceremony was held in Berlin this evening to mark the anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel, with the Israeli flag and the words “Bring them home now” projected onto the Brandenburg Gate, alongside the yellow ribbon that symbolizes the hostages in Gaza.
The Brandenburg Gate is lit tonight with the flag of #Israel and the symbol of the abductees. Ambassador@Ron_Prosor: "Berlin is by our side for the first day." in support and solidarity and no less in the fight against hatred and #Antisemitism . We will not rest until we return… pic.twitter.com/KZhntFYcSh
— Niv Calderon (@nivcalderon) October 7, 2024
Israeli ground operations in Lebanon remain limited, State Dept. says
The United States assesses that Israel’s ground operations in Lebanon so far continue to be limited, the State Department says.
Forces have been operating in towns across the border to dismantle Hezbollah’s extensive infrastructure in the area, while engaging in gun battles with terror operatives.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller tells reporters that Washington expects Israel to target Hezbollah in Lebanon in a way that complies with international humanitarian law and minimizes civilian casualties.
European Parliament holds minute of silence for victims of Oct. 7, Gaza war
EU lawmakers today held a minute of silence in remembrance of the victims of the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, as well as all those who lost their lives in the subsequent war, as the bloc’s chief vowed to step up the fight against antisemitism.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen decried what she described as “an alarming surge of antisemitism” in Europe, as she attended a memorial ceremony at a synagogue in Brussels marking the one-year anniversary of the attacks.
“This is just unacceptable,” she said, pledging to devote more resources to ensuring that “Jews can live and thrive” on the continent. “Antisemitism is a threat to our democracy. It is a cancer that questions the very foundations of our European Union. And we shall never allow it.”
Earlier, lawmakers paid tribute to the victims of the October 7 attack during a plenary sitting in Strasbourg, eastern France.
“The horror of that day will live in infamy,” European Parliament speaker Roberta Metsola told the gathering. “There is nothing that could ever justify the indiscriminate mass murder, rape, kidnapping and torture that occurred a year ago.”
Trump prays for release of Oct. 7 hostages at Ohel Chabad Lubavitch in New York
Former US president Donald Trump visits the Ohel Chabad Lubavitch in Queens, New York, where he places a note praying for the release of the hostages in Gaza near the grave of Rabbi Menachem Schneerson.
Trump also reads from the Jewish book of Psalms at Schneerson’s gravesite.
Trump is accompanied by the parents of American-Israeli hostage Idan Alexander.
NEW YORK: Trump arrived at the Ohel of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Z’L in Queens, after hours of anticipation. He wore a Yarmulke and was gifted a Siddur. He left a note and put a rock on the Matzeiva. pic.twitter.com/nLsbMy0o6x
— KolHaolam (@KolHaolam) October 7, 2024
IDF says it struck Hezbollah intelligence division command centers in Beirut
Israeli fighter jets struck command centers belonging to Hezbollah’s intelligence division in Beirut a short while ago, the IDF says.
Earlier today, the military says it targeted several more Hezbollah sites, including weapon manufacturing facilities and rocket launching positions in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley.
Additionally, as part of ground operations in southern Lebanon, more than 70 other Hezbollah sites were struck today, the IDF adds.
They included rocket launchers, buildings used by Hezbollah, and weapon depots, the IDF says.
https://twitter.com/IsrelExpress/status/1843376265455382836
Netanyahu: Out of indescribable sorrow of Oct. 7 came great inner strength
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a video statement at the state ceremony for the October 7 attack. (Video screenshot/ GPO)
October 7 was a day of indescribable sorrow for the country, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in a video statement at the state memorial ceremony, but “we were not defeated.”
“And as has happened time and again in Israel’s history, it is precisely in moments of difficulty that great inner strength emerges.”
“We stood together for the defense of our country, for the defense of our homeland,” says Netanyahu in the pre-recorded message. “We have mobilized enormous spiritual power. We have defined the goals of the war and we are achieving them: toppling the rule of Hamas; bringing all our hostages home, both alive and dead, is a sacred mission that we will not let go of until we achieve it; thwarting any future threat from Gaza to Israel; and returning the residents of the south and the north safely to their homes.”
Israel fights, says Netanyahu, “to bring light to the world, a people who strive to spread good and eradicate evil.”
“As long as the enemy threatens our existence and the peace of our country — we will continue to fight. As long as there are kidnapped in Gaza — we will continue to fight. We will not give up any of them. I will not give up. As long as our citizens do not return to their homes safely — we will continue to fight.”
When Israel wins, says Netanyahu, “not only for our sake, but for the sake of future generations and for the sake of all humanity — we will rebuild the revived regions on a much larger scale. Holding onto the root will regrow the tree of life.”
“October 7 will symbolize for generations the price of our revival, and it will express for generations the magnitude of our determination and the strength of our spirit,” continues Netanyahu.
“Together we will continue to fight, and together — with God’s grace — we will win.”
IDF tells Lebanese civilians near 2 buildings in Beirut’s Dahiyeh to leave immediately
The IDF is calling on Lebanese civilians near two buildings in the southern suburb of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh, to evacuate immediately, ahead of airstrikes.
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, publishes maps alongside the announcement, which call on civilians to distance themselves at least 500 meters (about a third of a mile) from the sites the military says belong to Hezbollah.
In recent days, the IDF has issued several evacuation orders for specific sites in Dahiyeh ahead of airstrikes on Hezbollah infrastructure.
#عاجل ‼️ انذار عاجل إلى سكان الضاحية الجنوبية في برج البراجنة وحدث بيروت وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط وتلك المجاورة لها:
🔴أنتم متواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله وسيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع على مدى الزمني القريب
🔴من أجل سلامتكم وسلامة أبناء عائلتكم عليكم… pic.twitter.com/A76cSXo4PE— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 7, 2024
Herzog at state ceremony: Israelis have wept for a year, but will rise together
President Isaac Herzog speaks at the state ceremony honoring the victims of the October 7, 2023 attacks, on October 7, 2024. (Video screenshot)
Looking back on “a full year of fracture and pain” during the government’s pre-recorded state ceremony, President Isaac Herzog says that “until my last day, I will be haunted by the smell of burnt bodies and the sight of pools of blood, alongside family photos and children’s books, in a paradise turned into Hell.”
Riffing on the Rosh Hashanah prayer of “Unetaneh Tokef,” Herzog says that Israelis “have wept for a year: who by fire and who by strangulation; who by sword and who by beast; who at their doorstep, and who in their safe-room; who in the greenhouse and who in the street; who at the outpost and who on the battlefield; who at the bus stop and who at the police station; who in the car and who in the shelter; who on the paths of the kibbutz and who at the music festival; who by missiles and rockets, who in tunnels, and who in hiding.”
“For a year now, in an abominable crime against humanity, our brothers and sisters have been held captive by murderers; and their voices cry out to us from beneath the earth — not far from here — pleading,” he continues, arguing that “the sanctity of life, which flows in our veins as a nation, obligates us, especially the leadership, to fulfill the highest human, Jewish, and Israeli commandment: to bring them home. Some for recovery and homecoming, and some for a fitting burial.”
“For a year now, many of our brothers and sisters have been displaced from their homes — in the north and in the south. Together with you all, I offer strength to the IDF and the security forces on all fronts, and I pray for the swift recovery and rehabilitation of those wounded in body and soul,” he adds.
Turning to bereaved families, Herzog says that he “bows my head in gratitude and reverence, hoping you will yet know healing and comfort.”
He says that 2024 has also “been a year in which we are filled to the brim with faith and pride. A year of witnessing the civil and military heroism of men and women who, with unimaginable resourcefulness and dedication, saved lives, families, and communities.”
Praising the “indomitable Israeli spirit,” Herzog promises that “we will continue to build, and we will reap with joy what we have sown in tears.”
“Elderly men and women will once again sit in the gardens of homes in the Western Negev, and the streets of the Galilee communities will once again be filled with children playing. We will rise together, only together, and this love, sanctified in blood, will once again bloom among us,” he declares.
American VP candidates attend Oct. 7 memorial events
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz visits an exhibit in Los Angeles that memorializes the victims of the Nova music festival massacre on the anniversary of the October 7 onslaught.
“I join Vice President Harris, President Biden, and all Americans to again condemn Hamas’s brutality and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Israel’s security and to the safety and security of the American Jewish community,” Walz says in a statement.
“It’s time for a hostage deal and ceasefire that ensures Israel is secure, all hostages are released, [and] the suffering in Gaza ends,” he adds.
.@Tim_Walz tours the Nova Exhibition this morning in LA to mark one year of the Oct. 7 attacks
Walz said in a statement “it’s time for a hostage deal and ceasefire that ensures Israel is secure, all hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends…” pic.twitter.com/97FtMLFtw9
— Katherine Koretski (@kekoretski) October 7, 2024
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance headlines a memorial at the National Mall in Washington organized by the Philos Project.
“I know that there are many, many people who want the war to end. I am certainly one of those who wants the war to end and wants peace to return to Israel and to the territories that are currently completely destroyed by war,” Vance says in his remarks at the memorial.
“But the truth is that the best way to end the war — and I believe the only way to end the war — is if Hamas would let the hostages go,” Vance says, echoing the stance of the Biden administration.
“October 7th was not just an attack on Israel, and not just an attack on Jews. It was an attack on Americans and every single American of common sense and principle must reject it,” he adds.
JD Vance: “October 7th was not just an attack on Israel, and not just an attack on Jews. It was an attack on Americans and every single American of common sense and principle must reject it.”
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 7, 2024
Brother of hostage shot dead by IDF: There is no personal example, no leadership, but we will rebuild
Jonathan Shamriz, whose younger brother Alon Shamriz was taken hostage by Hamas and accidentally killed by IDF troops in Gaza, at the Bereaved Families Memorial Ceremony marking one year since the killings, October 7, 2024. (Video screenshot)
One of the final speakers at the Bereaved Families Ceremony was Yonatan Shamriz, the bereaved brother who organized the ceremony. He spoke about his beloved younger brother Alon Shamriz, taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 and accidentally killed by IDF troops on December 15 with Yotam Haim and Samar Tlalka when trying to escape captivity.
Wearing a white t-shirt printed with the name of his devastated kibbutz, Kfar Aza, and a yellow ribbon, Shamriz recalled being in the shelter with his family, holding the door closed against terrorists with a kitchen knife in his hand, receiving updates on his phone about the massacre taking place.
“It was a day without an army, without a state — a day where all we had was ourselves, the citizens. This is what abandonment looks like,” says Shamriz. “Instead of standing here as multitudes of the people of Israel, united, we stand here waiting for the next siren. Instead of a state inquiry commission being established to investigate this colossal failure, we are asking the questions ourselves without getting any answers.”
“There is no personal example, no vision, no leadership, no accountability,” he says, to applause from the audience.
Shamriz tells of his brother, Alon, held for 65 days in Gaza with Haim and Tlalka, navigating for five days in a bombarded neighborhood in Gaza.
They wrote a single word on a white sheet: “Help,” says Shamriz. “But it did not save them.”
He swallows hard, trying to get the words out without crying. The audience applauds him.
Shamriz says he believes a new generation is rising out of the ruins and destruction, a generation that believes in the Israeli spirit, that will rebuild and create a better, more moral country.
“Alon, you hero, thank you for showing us the path. Thank you for setting the standards. We will not desist until we have fixed things. We will not rest until we have rebuilt. We are the generation that will emerge from the ruins, the holocaust, the inferno, and will realize the new Zionist vision. And when that happens, I will know that Alon’s path has become reality. Rise! The people of Israel live,” he says.
Trump: ‘Israel has to get smart about Trump, because they don’t back me’
Former US president Donald Trump tells conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, “Israel has to do one thing. They have to get smart about Trump. Because they don’t back me. I did more for Israel than anybody, I did more for the Jewish people than anybody. And it’s not a reciprocal, as they say.”
It is unclear whether the Republican presidential nominee meant to say “American Jews,” instead of “Israel” in the first sentence, but he has often conflated the two, leading to accusations that he employs antisemitic dual loyalty tropes.
Trump has repeatedly rapped American Jews for not supporting him in higher numbers and said last month that Jews would deserve a lot of blame if he loses in November. But he does not typically claim that Israel does not support him, and in fact sometimes cites polling that shows Israelis back him in very high numbers.
Trump: "Israel has to do one thing. They have to get smart about Trump. Because they don't back me. I did more for Israel than anybody, I did more for the Jewish people than anybody. And it's not a reciprocal, as they say." pic.twitter.com/cbYO2hPKgi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 7, 2024
WATCH: Controversial official state ceremony for October 7 begins
The night’s second major ceremony is now beginning — this time the official state ceremony for October 7 events, featuring a speech by the prime minister and other officials.
The ceremony was pre-recorded, reportedly to prevent any heckling or deviations from the script, with the government under heavy criticism for the events of that day and its handling of the war since.
At the Bereaved Families Ceremony, there was much finger-pointing at the government, calls for leaders to accept responsibility and accusations Israel’s south was abandoned on the dark day of the Hamas attacks.
Little of that is likely to be on display at the state event.
It can be viewed here:
Sister of murdered ambulance driver: ‘He was our light, our life’
Awad Darawshe, a paramedic, murdered by Hamas terrorists as he treated those wounded by gunfire during a party near the Gaza Strip, October 7, 2023. (Screenshot)
Maysam Abu Wasel Darawshe speaks at the Bereaved Families Ceremony about her brother, Awad, an ambulance driver who was killed at the Nova desert rave on October 7.
She says he was the youngest child in the house, “our light, our life, someone who filled our home with warmth and love,” a dreamer who wanted to be a doctor and a chef, to have his own home and to stay close to their parents.
He stayed at the party to help people during the Hamas attack. When he came home in an ambulance, this time it was just his body, says his sister.
Abu Wasel Darawshe asks to speak the words their mother says about him, which are in Arabic, the same language that on that morning was associated with blood and horror: “Awad was a gift from heaven. His journey was short, but it carried great and profound meanings: He taught us how to love each other, to help one another, and not to let hatred and jealousy reside within us.”
The audience once again applauds.
Former Hezbollah hostage Elhanan Tannenbaum dies at 78
Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum, who was taken hostage by Hezbollah in 2000 and released in 2004 in a swap, has died at age 78.
Tannenbaum was captured by the terror group after being lured to Dubai in October 2000 for an ostensible drug deal. He was freed in exchange for some 400 prisoners held by Israel.
He was later investigated for his conduct, but eventually was not charged under a plea bargain.
הלך לעולמו אלחנן טננבוים, 20 שנה אחרי שהושב בעסקת שבוייםhttps://t.co/omZUF8GwrT pic.twitter.com/cUVnNNow2S
— ynet עדכוני (@ynetalerts) October 7, 2024
US says it does not seek unilateral Israeli ceasefire in Gaza without hostage release
Asked whether the US supports Israel ending its bombing campaign against Hamas in Gaza, US State Department Matthew Miller says the Biden administration does not support a unilateral Israeli ceasefire, rather a deal with Hamas that would see the release of the remaining 101 hostages in Gaza.
Pressed during a briefing whether the US thinks Israel is more secure as a result of its wars in Gaza and Lebanon, Miller says it will ultimately not be fully secure unless it grants Palestinians self-determination through a two-state solution.
At AJC Oct. 7 event, father of hostage blasts Netanyahu’s handling of war, negotiations
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of American-Israeli hostage Sagui, speaks at an October 7 memorial ceremony organized by the American Jewish Committee in Washington on October 7, 2024. (Screen capture/YouTube)
The father of American-Israeli hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen rips into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the Gaza war and the long-stuck hostage negotiations during an October 7 memorial ceremony hosted by the American Jewish Committee in Washington.
“The vast majority of Israelis have been appalled by our government’s repeated moving of the goalposts in the negotiation process with Hamas,” Jonathan Dekel-Chen says, adding that Netanyahu has been “unwilling to take any accountability for the situation in which Israel finds itself and unable to offer a workable vision for its future.”
Dekel-Chen acknowledges that the October 7 onslaught has forced a reckoning in the Israeli peace camp, particularly given that its members living along the Gaza border were targeted in the attacks. He says he is no longer sure about the possibility of coexistence with Israel’s Arab neighbors and urges dovish groups like J Street to temporarily abandon talk of a two-state solution. “Not because I don’t believe it, but simply because it’s a non-starter in terms of where Israeli society is today.”
Turning to advocates of the Palestinian cause, he urges them to speak out against Hamas in addition to the Israeli government. “They need to expend at least as much effort in leveraging Hamas to do the right thing despite itself — not for the good of the hostages, but for the good of the Palestinian people and the people in Gaza.”
He says he has also been asking the US evangelical community to demonstrate their support for Israel by urging the Israeli government to ink a hostage deal. “Support for Israel does not always mean blind support for its government.”
Dekel-Chen acknowledges that his remarks may not be what attendees or hosts might have expected during the solemn ceremony also attended by Israel’s Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog, but he thanks AJC for giving him the platform.
Hostage’s mother at Oct. 7 ceremony: No rehabilitation without return of the hostages
Nitza Corngold, mother of hostage Tal Shoham, speaks about her son at the Bereaved Families Ceremony, October 7, 2024. (Video screenshot)
The mother of hostage Tal Shoham, Nitza Corngold, speaks about her son at the Bereaved Families Ceremony. Shoham was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 as he, his wife, and two children were visiting his wife’s parents in Be’eri.
Shoham’s wife, children, mother-in-law and other relatives were taken hostage, and released at the end of November.
“His kids, Naveh and Yahel, don’t stop asking where their father is, asking if he will he be very old when he’s back, asking what country he is in,” says Corngold, who calls October 7 a “holocaust.”
“The whole nation is waiting for the next stage, for our rehabilitation,” she says.
“We know in our minds, our hearts, in every cell in our bodies: There will be no rehabilitation without the return of the hostages. All of them,” she says.
Once again, the audience applauds — the second time it has done so this evening.
“I call on all world leaders to put the immediate release of the hostages — all of them in a single deal — at the top of their agenda.”
“And one last word for my son, Tal, my Taltaloni. If you can see or hear me, we all miss you so much and are doing everything, everything, to return you and other hostages home. We aren’t giving up on you. To give up on them is to give up on us.”
IDF imposes new closed military zone on areas of Lebanon border
This map issued by the IDF on October 7, 2024, shows a closed military zone on the Lebanon border. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF has imposed a new closed military zone on the Lebanon border, in the areas of the communities of Rosh Hanikra, Shlomi, Hanita, Adamit, and Arab al-Aramshe.
The military says the move follows a fresh assessment given ground operations inside southern Lebanon.
It is the fourth close military zone imposed on the northern border since the IDF launched its ground operations in Lebanon last week.
The order prohibits civilians from areas where the Israeli military is operating, including areas in Israel across the border from Lebanese villages where fighting may be taking place.
In recent days, the IDF has been expanding its ground operations against Hezbollah to more Lebanese border communities.
Father of slain soldier: ‘With what’s left of us, we’ll make sure responsibility is taken’
Cpl. Hadar Cohen who was killed in Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023. (IDF)
Several parents at the Bereaved Family Ceremony speak about their children killed on October 7, including surveillance soldier Hadar Miryam Cohen, whose father says he speaks as a representative of the 16 young female surveillance soldiers killed on that Saturday.
“We are their voices,” he says, “and I want everyone to listen to these daughters who are crying to us from under the earth. With what’s left of us, we will make sure that the responsibility is taken.”
After speculation he was killed, Sinwar said to renew contact with Qatar
Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar gestures on stage after greeting supporters at a rally in Gaza City, May 24, 2021. (AP Photo/ John Minchillo)
A senior Israeli official tells Walla news that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has renewed his contact with Qatar, after going off the grid for weeks, which had given rise to speculation that he might have been killed.
The official says it does not seem Sinwar has in any way softened his positions on a hostage-and-ceasefire deal.
Biden participates in a memorial candle-lighting for Oct. 7 victims
US President Joe Biden participates in a memorial candle-lighting ceremony to mark the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
He is joined by First Lady Jill Biden and Rabbi Aaron Alexander of Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, who is a family friend of slain American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Alexander recites the “El Malei Rachamim” prayer, a traditional Jewish prayer often heard at funerals and on the anniversary of a death.
The rabbi prays for “the souls of the holy ones, men, women, and children who were killed on October the seventh.”
“For this we pray for the ascent of their souls, may they rest in the Garden of Eden,” he says. “May their souls be bound up in the bond of everlasting life.”
Biden then lights a yahrzeit candle, briefly crosses himself, and walks out of the White House Blue Room without engaging with reporters present.
Remembering the victims of October 7th. pic.twitter.com/o8bnKBJyBh
— Herbie Ziskend (@HerbieZiskend46) October 7, 2024
At ceremony, bereaved father calls for Oct. 7 state inquiry – to audience applause
Rafi Ben Shitrit, whose son was killed on October 7, speaks at the Bereaved Families Memorial Ceremony marking one year since the killings, Oct. 7, 2024 (Bereaved Families Memorial Ceremony)
At the bereaved families ceremony, Rafi Ben Shitrit, whose son Staff Sgt. Shimon Alroy Ben Shitrit was killed on October 7 while attempting to fend off Hamas terrorists in southern Israel, calls for a state commission of inquiry into the disaster.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted calls for such a probe, saying any investigations should wait for the end of the war. Critics say he is attempting to limit the scope of a probe, fearing it will reflect poorly on him.
“The legacy of the fallen, among them Alroy, in these terrible days, demands that we conduct national soul-searching. The beginning of healing comes with acceptance of responsibility,” he says.
“My beloved son and other heroic soldiers took responsibility, sacrificed themselves and gave their lives. From the depths of the pained heart, out of love and concern for this country, and not for any political reason, I call from this stage for the formation of a state commission of inquiry, to investigate deeply and extensively the disaster of October 7,” he says.
The audience, which has been totally silent throughout the ceremony, erupts in applause to this.
“In the name of my son who is gone, I ask that we be worthy, that we be together,” he says.
Pained families recall their slain loved ones in tortured memorial ceremony
Gali Atari and Corin Allal perform 'I have no other land' at the families ceremony marking the October 7, attacks. (Video screenshot)
At the bereaved families’ memorial ceremony in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park, the camera pans to the pained faces of families and three giant screens display a run-through of the names of all those killed on October 7 and in the months since the Hamas terrorist attack.
Hosts Hanoch Daum and Rotem Sela open the ceremony, telling some of the stories of the fallen. The father of Tzvi Granot, a soldier who fell fighting, recites Kaddish, the mourner’s prayer, for those gathered.
Bereaved family members, evacuees and hostages’ family members appear in recorded videos, speaking in verse about what happened to them on October 7.
Or Gat, the son of Kinneret Gat who was killed at Kibbutz Be’eri and the younger brother of Carmel Gat, who was taken hostage and killed in captivity, speaks in a video about his big sister.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” he says. “She reached so many people, it shouldn’t have happened.” Gat says he finds some consolation in the family members who returned, his other brother and niece who escaped from the terrorists and his sister-in-law, who was taken hostage and released at the end of November.
The recordings and stories are interspersed with songs sung by Israeli performers, including Gali Atari and Corin Allal, who sing “Ein li eretz aheret,” “I have no other land,” as audience members wearing Bring Them Home shirts, or shirts printed with the faces of their loved ones, are seen mouthing the words.
Allal strums her acoustic guitar in a painful duet and photos flip across the screens, showing images of the last year.
“I have no other country, even if my land is burning,” sing the two women. The two are followed by Rita, singing “One day, it will happen, without us noticing, something will change, something will ease up inside us.”
Beit Shemesh says fire in the city not the result of missile
The Beit Shemesh municipality now says a fire sparked in the city was not the result of the ballistic missile from Yemen.
It says no parts of a missile or interceptor appear to have fallen in the city.
Schools allowed to resume in some areas of northern Israel
The IDF Home Front Command is easing restrictions in northern Israel, allowing schools to resume in some areas.
Schools will now be able to operate if there is an adequate shelter that can be reached in time in the Lower Galilee and southern Golan Heights, according to the latest guidelines.
IDF warns Lebanese civilians to stay away from sea, beaches in southern Lebanon
The IDF warns Lebanese civilians against entering the sea or being on the beach in southern Lebanon, as Israel continues its offensive against Hezbollah.
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, issues an “urgent warning” to people on vacation, beachgoers, and anyone using boats for fishing or other uses from the Awali River — located north of Sidon — southward.
He says the Israeli Navy will soon begin to operate against Hezbollah in the area.
“For your safety, refrain from being at the sea or on the beach from now until further notice. Being on the beach, and boat movements in the area of the Awali River line to the south, poses a threat to your life,” Adraee adds.
Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida hails Oct. 7 attack and ‘unity of fronts’
Hamas Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades' spokesperson Abu Obeida in a speech marking the one-year anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. (video screenshot)
On the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, the spokesman of the terror group’s military wing, known only as Abu Obeida, delivers a speech praising the attack the group carried out one year ago, and the unity of the fronts opened by Iran-backed proxy groups across the Middle East against Israel over the past 12 months. He further calls for “military, financial and logistical support” as well as media campaigns against Israel.
Abu Obeida also discusses the issue of the hostages still in Gaza, and says that it would be “unreasonable” for Hamas to kill them, but that dozens of them may be held in captivity for a long time and may never be returned.
“The fate of the hostages is tied to the actions of their government,” Abu Obeida says. “The longer [the military operation in Gaza] persists, the greater the risk to the hostages.”
Abu Obeida boasts that October 7 was “the most professional and successful commando operation in the modern era,” and adds that it inflicted a “humiliating defeat” on the IDF. He makes the baseless allegation that it was a “preemptive strike” to avert a major operation planned by Israel against Hamas in Gaza.
The spokesman adds that October 7 came in response to alleged Israeli violations in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, the expansion of settlements, abuses against Palestinian security prisoners, and the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
He addresses Hezbollah, saying: “We are confident in your steadfastness and courage in inflicting heavy losses on the forces of the Zionist enemy, as the martyr Hassan Nasrallah promised.”
The terror leader also mentions Maher al-Jazi, the Jordanian citizen who carried out a shooting attack at the Allenby Bridge Crossing on September 8 in which three Israeli citizens were killed, saying that he opened an “authentic Jordanian front” in addition to the existing ones.
Abu Obeida lashes at the US for supporting Israel, and claims that Islamist terror operatives in the Gaza Strip, from Hamas and other factions, “persist in their steadfastness and their heroic fighting in every inch of the Strip.” The group’s combat capabilities have been significantly reduced in the Strip.
Commenting on the recent killing of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, Abu Obeida says that “the policy of assassinations of our leaders is a good outcome, a sign of victory for us, and a source of regret and disappointment for the aggressors.”
“A leader is succeeded by 10, and a fighter by a thousand,” he adds. “This land produces resistance fighters as it produces olives.”
Biden phones Herzog to express condolences on Oct. 7 anniversary
US President Joe Biden (left) and Israeli President Isaac Herzog speak in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, July 18, 2023. (Chris Kleponis)
US President Joe Biden phoned President Isaac Herzog earlier today to express his condolences to the Israeli people on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught, the White House says.
While the call appears more symbolic, making the president a suitable recipient, it is notable that Biden did not decide to speak with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The two leaders have not spoken in nearly 50 days, as frustration in Washington with Netanyahu, primarily over his handling of the Gaza war, has long since peaked.
Biden “expressed his deepest condolences to the people of Israel and to the families of the 1,200 innocent people –- including 46 Americans –- massacred by the terrorist group Hamas on a day of unspeakable brutality, stressing that the United States will never give up until we bring all of the remaining hostages home safely,” the White House says in a readout.
“Biden conveyed his commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and its right to exist, and reaffirmed his support for Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks from Iran and all Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis,” the US readout continues.
The two presidents “reaffirmed their commitment to achieving a deal in Gaza that brings the hostages home, secures Israel, alleviates the suffering of Palestinian civilians, and paves the way for a lasting peace with Hamas never again able to control Gaza or reconstitute its military capabilities,” the White House adds.
The Israeli readout adds that “Biden noted that the atrocities committed by Hamas served as a reminder of the significant threat posed by Iran and its proxies in the region. He emphasized his deep love for Israel and his own support for Zionism.”
“Herzog thanked President Biden for his call and for his steadfast support of Israel from the outbreak of the war, and stressed that this would never be forgotten,” the Israeli president’s office says.
Israel did not target Iran Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani in Beirut – army sources
The commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Esmail Qaani, speaks during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 2020 killing of Guards general Qasem Soleimani, in Tehran, Iran, on January 3, 2024. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Iran’s IRGC Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani was not the target of an Israeli strike in Beirut, according to military sources, as reports in recent days have suggested that he has been missing since last week.
Two Iranian security officials told Reuters yesterday that Qaani, who traveled to Lebanon after the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, has not been heard from since strikes on Beirut’s southern suburb on Thursday.
On Thursday, the IDF carried out an airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburb, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh, targeting Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine. It remains unclear if Safieddine was killed in the strike.
Military sources say that if Qaani was actually with Safieddine during the strike, the IDF was not aware of this and that he was not the intended target.
Interception of Yemen missile said to spark fire in Beit Shemesh
A fire appears to have been ignited in Beit Shemesh after fragments of an Israeli interceptor fell on the Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel neighborhood following the launch of a surface-to-surface missile from Yemen. (Update: The city later says the fire was unrelated to the missile attack.)
Footage from national broadcaster Kan shows a sidewalk on fire in the Jerusalem suburb. Local news outlet Beit Shemesh Hadashot reports that Mayor Shmulik Greenberg is on the way to the site.
בית שמש
נפילה ליד אחד המפעלים באזור התעשיה, במקום פרצה שריפה, אין נפגעים. pic.twitter.com/ggUjt08yKi— Asslan Khalil (@KhalilAsslan) October 7, 2024
WATCH: Families’ ceremony commemorating October 7 attack begins
The commemoration ceremony organized by families of the victims of the October 7 attack begins at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park. It will be broadcast on Israeli television stations and dozens of foreign broadcast networks.
It is the first of two ceremonies this evening, with the official state ceremony to be held at 9:15 p.m. The latter, organized by Transportation Minister Miri Regev, has been surrounded by controversy, with critics of the government saying it should not be overseeing a ceremony marking its failures a year ago.
Some 40,000 people had planned to attend the Yarkon Park event, but it will now be held with a limited crowd due to the IDF Home Front Command only allowing gatherings of up to 2,000 people in Tel Aviv amid the ongoing threat of rocket attacks.
Emily Hand, 9, recalls abduction on October 7 a year ago
Former hostage Emily Hand has described the moment of her kidnapping by Hamas terrorists last October 7, in a video published by The Telegraph.
Irish-Israeli Hand, age 9, was at a friend’s house in Kibbutz Be’eri when terrorists stormed it.
“They threatened us with a knife. If we resist, they’ll kill us,” Emily says in the video.
“They put a blanket over us so that we won’t see and maybe run away. So we won’t know the way back.”
Army says it has struck more than 100 Hezbollah targets in Beirut in past 2 weeks
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut's southern suburbs, on October 5, 2024. (Anwar Amro/AFP)
The Israeli Air Force has struck more than 100 Hezbollah sites in Beirut in the past two weeks, according to the military.
The IDF says the sites have included weapon depots, weapon manufacturing plants, and command centers.
The military in recent months identified Hezbollah moving weapons and manufacturing equipment from southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley to Beirut’s southern suburb, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh.
The IDF believes that Hezbollah moved the assets in an attempt to prevent Israel from targeting them, as until recently, Israel largely refrained from strikes in Beirut. Such strikes have now become a daily occurrence.
IDF says 100 fighter jets attacked over 120 Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon today
This picture taken from the southern city of Tyre shows smoke billowing from the site of an Israeli airstrike in a southern Lebanese village, on October 7, 2024 (KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)
Some 100 Israeli fighter jets carried out a large wave of airstrikes against more than 120 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon earlier today, the IDF says.
The strikes, which lasted an hour, hit Hezbollah sites belonging to the terror group’s Southern Front, elite Radwan Force, rocket and missile division, and intelligence division, according to the military.
US targets Hamas with sanctions on anniversary of Oct 7 attacks
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies before a House Financial Services Committee hearing at Capitol Hill in Washington on July 9, 2024. (Chris Kleponis/AFP)
The United States imposes sanctions on an international Hamas fundraising network, accusing it of playing a critical role in external fundraising for the Palestinian terror group, in action marking the first anniversary of the terror group’s atrocities in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The US Treasury Department in a statement says it imposed sanctions on three people and what it calls a “sham charity” that it accuses of being prominent international financial supporters of Hamas, as well as on the Al-Intaj Bank in Gaza that it says is controlled by the group.
Also targeted is a longstanding Hamas supporter, a Yemeni national living in Turkey, and nine of his businesses, the Treasury says.
“As we mark one year since Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack, Treasury will continue relentlessly degrading the ability of Hamas and other destabilizing Iranian proxies to finance their operations and carry out additional violent acts,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says in the statement.
“The Treasury Department will use all available tools at our disposal to hold Hamas and its enablers accountable, including those who seek to exploit the situation to secure additional sources of revenue.”
Iran warns again it will hit back against any Israeli strike
Iran repeats its warning from recent days that it will respond firmly to any Israeli attack on its soil, asserting that it does not want a wider war in the region.
On Tuesday Iran launched around 200 missiles in its second direct attack on Israel, in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Tehran-aligned terror leaders in the region and a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israel has vowed to respond to the attack.
Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, says the Islamic Republic is “not afraid of war and will give a firm and appropriate response to any new action by the Zionist regime.”
The foreign minister makes the remarks in a telephone conversation with his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Iran made a “big mistake” with its missile barrage, which followed Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on September 27.
After the United States said it was discussing a joint response with Israel, Iran’s chief of staff warned that Tehran would hit Israeli infrastructure if its territory is attacked.
WATCH: At JNF ceremony near Gaza, Americans honor victims of October 7
The Jewish National Fund-USA is now holding an October 7 commemoration ceremony at the site of the Nova music festival massacre near Kibbutz Re’im.
Over 100 American philanthropists visiting the country are taking part in the event to remember the victims of October 7.
Army says ballistic missile from Yemen intercepted
The IDF says the ballistic missile launched from Yemen at Israel was successfully intercepted by Israeli air defenses.
Sirens sounded across central Israel amid fears of falling shrapnel.
The missile was shot down with the Arrow long-range missile defense system, which is designed to take out ballistic missiles while they are still outside the atmosphere.
Central Israel sirens triggered by surface-to-surface missile from Yemen, IDF confirms
The IDF confirms that the sirens that sounded across central Israel were triggered due to a surface-to-surface missile launch from Yemen.
Further details are under investigation, it adds.
Sirens sound in central Israel amid apparent ballistic missile attack from Yemen
Sirens are sounding in central Israel amid an apparent ballistic missile attack from Yemen.
The IDF is looking into the details.
French foreign minister meets Palestinian PM in Ramallah
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot is meeting now with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in Ramallah.
He will then meet with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer in Jerusalem, before heading to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial to pay tribute to French Righteous Among the Nations who saved Jews during the Holocaust.
Meeting Netanyahu, Sen. Lindsey Graham says French have it ‘ass backwards’ on war
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) meets US Senator Lindsey Graham (R) and Senator Richard Blumenthal in Jerusalem, October 7, 2024 (Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO)
Meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham says, “To my friends in France, you’ve got this ass backwards.”
French President Emmanuel Macron called last week for an arms embargo on Israel, leading to outrage from Netanyahu. The two leaders later spoke on the phone in an attempt to smooth things over.
“You should be doubling down on helping Israel,” Graham continues, “because the people that want to destroy Israel also want to destroy the French people.”
Turning to Netanyahu, Graham says, “You’re fighting our fight. We’re going to help you with your military needs.”
“The Twin Towers fell not because of a hurricane, [but] because radical Islamist terrorists killed 3,000 of us on a single day,” he says, referring to the 9/11 attacks. “And they would kill all of us if they could. If Iran ever got a nuclear weapon, they would use it. The question would be who would they use it against first. Me? You? Saudi Arabia? We can never let that happen. So we’re going to help you.”
Referring to Israel’s fight against Hezbollah and its campaign to make the north safe for its displaced residents, Graham says, “Whatever it takes to get your people back in their homes, you do it.”
“We’re here to say we have Israel’s back and Israel has the right to defend itself,” says Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
“We’re fighting like lions with the support of the American government and the American people, and its representatives here,” says Netanyahu. “I want to thank you both for your stellar support for Israel throughout the war.”
Over 130 rockets launched from Lebanon at northern Israel today
Some 135 rockets have been launched from Lebanon at northern Israel today, as of 5 p.m., the IDF says.
Meanwhile, fresh rocket sirens sound in Acre, Nahariya, and suburbs of Haifa.
Israeli official: PM’s security consultation was nothing out of ordinary
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security consultation this afternoon was not urgent or extraordinary, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
“The government holds regular ministerial discussions about various issues on the agenda,” says the official, “and that is what it is doing now.”
Netanyahu’s schedule is being watched closely by outside observers, as they look for some indication as to the timing and nature of Israel’s response to the Iranian missile attack last week.
AG leaves cabinet meeting after incorrect claims she blocked release of graphic Oct. 7 footage
Attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara and Justice Minister Yariv Levin at a farewell ceremony for retiring acting Supreme Court President Uzi Vogelman, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, October 1, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/POOL)
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara walked out of a cabinet meeting following an argument with ministers over the release of graphic footage of the October 7 Hamas massacres, according to multiple Hebrew media reports.
According to the reports, after a collection of footage was screened for the cabinet, ministers including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu questioned why it had not been shown publicly.
During the discussion, some reports said, one minister claimed that its dissemination had been stopped on legal advice from the Attorney General’s Office. An Army Radio report said, by contrast, that it was the representative of the IDF Spokesman who indicated that there were unspecified legal issues preventing the wider dissemination of the footage.
Army Radio reported that Netanyahu banged on the table and demanded to know why the footage had not been made more widely available, and insisted that he would not accept any legal impediment to the dissemination of the footage.
The reports say Baharav-Miara flatly rejected any assertion that she was blocking the dissemination of the material, saying her office had had no involvement in the matter. Voices were raised and the attorney general left the room.
Baharav-Miara’s office later states that the claim made against her was “false” and she has not prevented the footage’s publication.
Army Radio says the IDF Spokesman has clarified that its representative’s comments were “taken out of context.”
Following the October 7 terror assault, in which thousands of invading terrorists slaughtered some 1,200 people and seized 251 hostages, Israel organized showings of a compilation of raw footage for international media outlets. That harrowing 44-minute montage, compiled by the IDF, was also aired for Israeli and US officials, as well as at the United Nations, and for numerous other international figures.
The footage shown to the cabinet today was not identical to that in the film screened around the world. Army Radio said the ministers watched about 20 minutes of footage, some of which had been collected since the original compilation was made.
Netanyahu suggests naming conflict against Hamas and Hezbollah ‘War of Revival’
Prime Minister Benjmain Netanyahu leads a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Oct. 7, 2024 (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the ongoing war against Hamas and Hezbollah to be named “The War of Revival.”
The yearlong conflict against Hamas has hitherto been known officially by the name of the military campaign — “Swords of Iron.”
Speaking at a special cabinet meeting to mark the one-year anniversary of the October 7 massacres, Netanyahu said: “This is our war of existence, the ‘War of Revival.’ This is what I would like to officially call the war.
“Our counterattack against our enemies in Iran’s axis of evil is a necessary condition for securing our future and ensuring our security,” he continued. “We will end the war when we complete all the goals we set: overthrowing the evil rule of Hamas, bringing all of our hostages home — both the dead and the living — thwarting any future threat from Gaza to Israel, and returning our residents in the south and north safely to their homes.”
Netanyahu said that Israel is “changing the security reality in our region. For the sake of our children, for the sake of our future, to ensure that what happened on October 7 will never happen again.”
At the meeting, Netanyahu lit a remembrance candle in honor of the victims, followed by a minute of silence. After the recitation of psalms and a prayer for IDF soldiers and the hostages, the ministers viewed footage of the Hamas atrocities on October 7.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum put out a statement in response saying: “We would like to remind the prime minister there cannot be and will not be any revival without the return of all the hostages.”
Senior Al Jazeera anchor hails Oct. 7 massacre as ‘day that restored nation’s dignity’
Palestinian Al Jazeera anchorman Jamal Rayyan, one of the network’s most prominent figureheads, celebrates the first anniversary of the savage October 7 Hamas attack on Israel with a series of posts hailing the “resistance” and calling on Arab countries to support it, even if “secretly.”
Rayyan, who has 2.3 million followers on X and lives in Doha, pins on his X account an image of rockets resembling fireworks flying out of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, with a shining number 7 in the middle.
“This is the day that restored the nation’s dignity and prestige,” Rayyan writes in the caption.
https://twitter.com/jamalrayyan/status/1842985011890552915
In a slew of other posts – at least a dozen – he publishes on the first anniversary of the onslaught led by Hamas, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage to Gaza, Rayyan lashes out at Arab countries that support Israel, calling them “Arab Zionists,” and urges them “not to bet on the victory of the Zionist entity,” to reconsider their calculations and “secretly support the resistance.”
Rayyan further predicts that Israel will not be able to sustain a long war of attrition with the various fronts of the “resistance” and that Israelis will eventually be pushed out of “Palestine.”
According to his profile on the Al Jazeera website, Rayyan was born in Tulkarem in the West Bank in 1953 and holds Jordanian citizenship. He worked for BBC Arabic for two years in the 1990s and in 1996 joined Al Jazeera at the time of its launch. He was the first broadcaster to appear on screen on the Qatari news channel and “became one of its most prominent stars,” his profile reads.
Al Jazeera has long been accused of sympathizing with Hamas and of having direct connections with the terror group. Various reporters working for Al Jazeera who were killed inside Gaza were terror operatives, according to the IDF. Al Jazeera has fiercely denied Israel’s allegations and accused it of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees in Gaza.
Report: Security forces thwart jailed Hamas terrorists’ riot plans
Israeli security forces thwarted a plan by jailed Hamas Nukhba terrorists to hold riots in prisons where they are being held to mark the October 7 attacks anniversary, Channel 12 reports.
Some 1,000 security personnel raided prison cells this morning based on intel to prevent the unrest, the network says.
French FM: Israeli security can’t be guaranteed by force alone, ceasefire still on table
French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot (2nd L) visits the Nova festival memorial near Kibbutz Reim, in a ceremony marking the first anniversary of Hamas's October terror onslaught, October 7, 2024. (Ahmad Gharabli / AFP)
The French-US proposal for a ceasefire to end fighting in Lebanon remains on the table, with parties continuing to work on it, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says.
He says Israel’s security cannot be guaranteed with military force alone and will require a diplomatic solution.
“Military success cannot be a substitute for a political perspective,” Barrot tells reporters during a visit to Israel.
“To bring the hostages home to their loved ones, to allow the displaced to return home in the north, after a year of war, the time for diplomacy has come.”
IDF confirms Beirut airstrike, says more details coming
The IDF confirms carrying out an airstrike in Beirut a short while ago.
The military describes the strike as “targeted,” and says further details will be provided soon.
Lebanese media reports fresh Israeli airstrikes in Beirut’s Dahiyeh
Lebanese media reports fresh Israeli airstrikes in Beirut’s southern suburb, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
الغارة الإسرائيلية التي استهدفت #الضاحية_الجنوبية منذ قليل pic.twitter.com/0CSl5U406p
— هنا لبنان (@thisislebnews) October 7, 2024
Netanyahu holding unplanned security consultation
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a cabinet meeting on October 7, 2024 (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls a security briefing after the government meeting marking the anniversary of the October 7 attacks, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
The meeting seems to be urgent, as a scheduled meeting between Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot was postponed at the last minute.
Britain withdraws embassy staff’s family members from Israel, says consular assistance will be limited
Members of the Jewish community stand with the Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy, center, at South Tottenham United Synagogue in London Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. (Dan Kitwood/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain has withdrawn the families of its embassy staff working in Israel due to the escalation in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and the risk of a wider regional conflict.
The decision comes in the wake of Israel sending troops into southern Lebanon, its killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and an Iranian missile attack on Israel.
“As a precautionary measure following escalation in the region, family members of British Embassy staff have been temporarily withdrawn,” the Foreign Office travel advice web page for Israel reads. “Our staff members remain.”
Hezbollah rockets hit Israel’s third-largest city Haifa early today as the country looked poised to expand its ground incursions into Lebanon.
Britain advises citizens against all travel to the area close to the border with Gaza and “all but essential travel” to other parts of Israel and the West Bank due to the yearlong conflict between Israel and Hamas.
But British citizens living in Israel are not being told to leave. Instead, they are being advised that consular assistance is “severely limited.”
“We recognize this is a fast-moving situation that poses significant risks,” the advice reads. “We strongly encourage you to check you and your dependents have the required documentation to travel at short notice.”
Palestinians say boy, 12, killed in West Bank clashes
Palestinians run past burning tires amid clashes with Israeli forces in Kafr Aqab east of Ramallah in the West Bank on October 7, 2024. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
A 12-year-old Palestinian boy was killed in confrontations between youths and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry says.
The Israeli military said it was checking the report.
Video from the area of Qalandia showed youths blocking a road with burning tires, with Israeli army vehicles and ambulances at the scene.
Marking Oct. 7, Erdogan says Israel will pay price for ‘genocide,’ again likens Netanyahu to Hitler
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey, on September 4, 2024. (AP/ Francisco Seco)
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vows that Israel will pay a price for the “genocide” in Gaza as he marked October 7, the day of the Hamas massacre that sparked the war.
“It should not be forgotten that Israel will sooner or later pay the price for this genocide that it has been carrying out for a year and is still continuing,” he says on X, formerly Twitter.
A vocal advocate of the Palestinian cause and a supporter of the Hamas terror group, Erdogan has often attacked Israel, branding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the “butcher of Gaza” and comparing him to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler.
“Just as Hitler was stopped by an alliance of humanity, Netanyahu and his murder network will be stopped in the same way,” Erdogan says.
“A world in which no account is held for the Gaza genocide will never find peace.”
Erdogan also criticizes the international system’s failure to stop the conflict in Gaza and now in Lebanon and says: “Israel’s long-standing policy of genocide, occupation and invasion must now come to an end.”
Hostage czar says international pressure on Israel dampens chances of Hamas accepting deal
Gal Hirsch, the government's point-man on missing and kidnapped citizens, attends a discussion about Israelis being held hostage in Gaza by the Hamas terror group, in Jerusalem, April 10, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)
There is a “direct and immediate connection between pressure on Israel and Hamas’s appetite for negotiations” on a hostage deal, says government hostage point-man Gal Hirsch, hinting at recent decisions by France and the UK.
“When there is international pressure on us, in the UN for instance, in the Security Council, from different government officials, from the International Criminal Court, from the International Court of Justice, in the hope of taking advantage of tensions between us and Iran, or between Hezbollah… and us, the idea of ‘no daylight between us and our allies’ is important. Very important,” says Hirsch at Reichman University.
“Hamas identifies every ‘daylight,’ every sliver of light, and whenever it identifies ideas like ‘we won’t give you ammunition,’ arms embargoes, removing reservations about the ICC, this doesn’t help us to reach hostage deal.”
“And I said this mildly,” he says with signs of anger.
He says that Hamas sees moves against Israel at the United Nations, the international courts in The Hague, and in other countries as “an achievement of the October 7 attack.”
He also blasts leaks, fake news, and deep fakes about the talks that “torture the families” and make success harder.
Addressing the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, Hirsch says, “I know you are in hell, that the path is hard and torturous, and unfortunately it is long, too long.
“We are working all the time to bring you back,” he says, hoping that some hostages are able to hear the broadcast of the conference. “We will never give up. We will continue to turn over every stone.
“Even though it seems that attention is spread across many fronts, that the war is large and we are being attacked from everywhere, we are not taking our eyes off of you, brothers and sisters,” he says.
Hirsch says that Israel’s attempts at negotiations to release the hostages — which take place continuously, including now — find themselves up against “great difficulties.”
He says that he would like to get all the hostages released at once, though Plan A is still the staged proposal presented by US President Joe Biden.
“But we are unable to get to effective negotiations with Hamas, which torpedoes talks all the time,” says the ex-general. “I am happy that this is said publicly by our friends in the US, including US Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken, [Middle East czar] Brett McGurk, and others.”
Though he laments pressure put on Israel in March “by our friends,” Hirsch speaks at length about the US contributions to hostage talks.
IDF carrying out extensive wave of strikes in south Lebanon
A plume of smoke billows following an Israeli air strike on the village of Khiam in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on October 7, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
The IDF says it is carrying out an “extensive” wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
Jets hit launchers in Khan Younis after rocket fire on Tel Aviv
Israeli fighter jets struck and destroyed rocket launchers in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis used by Hamas in an attack earlier today on central Israel, the military says.
The IDF says secondary explosions were seen following the strike, indicating that additional weapons were stored in the area.
Five rockets were launched from Gaza in the attack this morning, with impacts in Kfar Chabad, where two people were lightly injured, and Holon.
Separately, the IDF says the 215th Artillery Regiment shelled a rocket launcher used to fire five more rockets at Sderot an hour ago.
Knesset told no indictments yet against Hamas members who raped and murdered on Oct. 7
Hamas terrorists who were caught during the October 7th massacre and during the IDF operation in the Gaza Strip, seen at a courtyard in a prison in southern Israel, February 14, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
A representative of the State Attorney’s Office tells members of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality that in the year since October 7, no indictments have been brought against members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force who raped and murdered Israelis.
While investigations are ongoing, including a team dedicated to sexual crimes, “I can’t tell you times and specific dates,” the representative states, drawing consternation from both coalition and opposition lawmakers.
“When a terrorist from Islamic Jihad in March 2024 said that he raped a woman in Nir Oz, there’s no indictment?” asks Likud lawmaker Keti Shitrit. “What else do you need to know to issue an indictment?”
“There are terrorists who admitted” to rape, chimes in committee chairwoman Pnina-Tamano Shata (National Unity), stating that “we want to know about the progress of the investigation. Time is important.”
Lebanese official says at least 8 firefighters killed in Israeli strike
An official in south Lebanon says an Israeli strike in the region overnight killed eight firefighters.
“An Israeli strike overnight targeted a local firefighting center in Baraasheet where 10 civil defense members were present. The bodies of eight of them have been retrieved until now,” municipal official Reda Ashour says.
Biden vows he will never give up on efforts to bring hostages home
US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden walk on the South Lawn as they arrive on Marine One at the White House from Camp David, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris condemned Hamas on the anniversary of the terror group’s attack on Israel, while reiterating their administration’s commitment to cementing ceasefire deals to end fighting in Gaza and Lebanon.
“On this solemn anniversary, let us bear witness to the unspeakable brutality of the October 7th attacks but also to the beauty of the lives that were stolen that day,” Biden says in a statement.
The president said that he thinks every day of the more than 100 hostages still in captivity and their families. He vowed that his administration “will never give up until we bring all of the remaining hostages home safely.”
Biden added that “history will also remember October 7th as a dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day.”
“It is far past time for a hostage and ceasefire deal to end the suffering of innocent people,” Harris says. “And I will always fight for the Palestinian people to be able to realize their right to dignity, freedom, security, and self-determination.”
IDF announces death of second reserve soldier in fighting on Lebanon border yesterday
A second IDF reservist was killed on the Lebanon border yesterday, the military announces.
The soldier is named as Warrant Officer (res.) Aviv Magen, 43, of the elite 5515 combat mobility unit, from Herut.
Magen was killed alongside Master Sgt. (res.) Etay Azulay, whose death was announced earlier.
According to an initial IDF probe, the soldiers were hit by a mortar on the border. Another soldier was seriously wounded.
IDF orders evacuation of two dozen Lebanese border villages
The IDF is calling on Lebanese civilians in more than two dozen villages and towns in southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately, and head north of the Awali River.
In recent days, the military has called on dozens of locales in southern Lebanon, including those north of the Litani River, to evacuate.
The IDF says it will update the civilians when it is safe to return.
The evacuations come amid Israeli ground operations in southern Lebanon, which the military has described as “limited, localized, and targeted raids,” with the goal of demolishing Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the border area.
Officials have said that the military intends for the operations to end as quickly as possible.
#عاجل ‼️ انذار عاجل الى سكان القرى التالية في جنوب لبنان: صربين, مروحين, شيحين,ام التوت, ام توته, بستان, الزلوطية, يارين, الضهرية, مطمورة, الجبّين, طير حرفا, أبو شاش, علما الشعب, الناقورة, عين شمع وراس الباضة, مجدل زون, المنصوري, المقصبة, مزرعة بيوت السياد, السماعية, رشيدية, عين… pic.twitter.com/lXsqk0TiWQ
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 7, 2024
In Beirut, Jordanian FM says Israel’s war with Hezbollah pushing region into abyss
A handout photo released by the Lebanese Government Press office shows Jordan's Foreign Affairs Minister Ayman Safadi speaking to the press after his meeting with the caretaker Lebanese prime minister, in Beirut, on October 7, 2024. (Photo by Lebanese Prime Minister's Press Office / AFP)
Jordan’s top diplomat slams Israel’s war with the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, saying it is pushing the Middle East into the “abyss of full-scale regional war.”
“We are facing a disaster and a dangerous escalation that threatens the region,” says Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. “Israel bears responsibility of this aggression, the escalation in the region, and any new escalation that the region faces.”
He speaks in a news conference following a meeting with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut.
Safadi says that Jordan backs the Lebanese government’s initiative to elect a new president and commitment to implement the UN Security Council resolution that ended Israel’s last war with Hezbollah in 2006 and that would keep southern Lebanon exclusively under the control of the Lebanese military and UN peacekeepers.
Israel stepped up its conflict with Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into Israel since October 8, in a bid to push the terror group away from the border and allow evacuated Israeli citizens to return to their homes.
He adds that Jordan, like Lebanon, backed an initiative by the United States and France for a three-week ceasefire in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, as the region braces for an Israeli retaliation for Iran’s missile attack, Safadi said Jordan rejects either country using its airspace in their hostilities.
“We will not a battlefield for anyone,” he said. “We made this message clear to Iran and to Israel as well.”
Italy’s Meloni attends Oct. 7 memorial at Rome synagogue, denounces ‘rampant antisemitism’
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrives for an informal EU leaders summit in Brussels, on June 17, 2024. (Nick Gammon/AFP)
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, who has voiced strong support for Israel, commemorates the Oct. 7 anniversary by visiting the main synagogue in Rome and reaffirming Israel’s right to defend itself.
Meloni also denounces the “latent and rampant antisemitism” that has arisen in the year since the Hamas attacks, citing in particular pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests in Italy over the weekend, some of which turned violent.
While asserting Israel’s right to live safely within its borders, she insists that it respect international law and lamented the devastation unleashed by Israeli forces in Gaza. She says Palestinians in Gaza had been “victims twice over: first of Hamas’s cynicism, which uses them as human shields, and then of Israeli military operations.”
As the current president of the Group of Seven, Italy will continue to work for an immediate ceasefire, “the release of Israeli hostages and the stabilization of the Israeli-Lebanese border through the full implementation of UN resolutions,” Meloni says.
Since entering office in 2022, Meloni has taken several initiatives to show her strong support for Italy’s Jewish community and Israel. Her Brothers of Italy party has roots in the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, or MSI, which was founded in 1946 by sympathizers of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
Kibbutz Be’eri commemorates the Oct. 7 attack in silence, amid burned homes
A woman looks at a battle-scarred home at the Kibbutz Be'eri as Israel marks the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Members of Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest-hit communities during the Oct. 7 attack, gather amid the burned ruins of their homes and demanded an immediate return of the hostages during a memorial and rally.
More than 95 people were killed there and 30 were taken hostage on Oct. 7, according to the community’s spokesperson. Some of the women and children from the kibbutz were released in a ceasefire deal in November, but 10 hostages from Be’eri remain in captivity. Israel believes most of them are no longer alive.
Today, the community marched silently through the streets of the kibbutz bearing signs for the hostages before gathering for a rally, unfurling a massive flag with the words “Be’eri cannot heal until everyone is home.”
Ella Ben-Ami, whose father Ohad Ben-Ami was kidnapped from Be’eri, addresses the crowd and demands the government bring her father home.
She says she continues to take solace from the video of his kidnapping, when he stands tall and proud, as if he knew he was being filmed, to broadcast a message to his family that he would be OK.
Many people at Be’eri were dreading the anniversary, which felt like an “impossible” amount of time, she says. “But then I stop for a moment, I think that my father woke up today to count a year in captivity, a year!” she said.
IDF tells Gazans in Khan Younis to evacuate after rocket fire on Tel Aviv
Following this morning’s rocket fire from the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip at central Israel, the IDF is calling on Palestinian civilians in the area to evacuate to the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone.
“Due to Hamas’s terrorist acts, which will be met with extreme force, you must evacuate these areas immediately and move to the humanitarian area,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman says, publishing a map of the zones that are to be evacuated.
The IDF in recent months has repeatedly issued evacuation orders for areas from which terrorists launched rockets at Israel.
Five rockets were launched in the attack this morning, with impacts in Kfar Chabad, where two people were lightly injured, and Holon.
#عاجل ‼️ إلى كل المتواجدين في منطقة بني سهيلا والمحطة والشيخ ناصر ومعن في جنوب قطاع غزة. نظرًا لأعمال حماس الأرهابية والتي ستواجه بقوة شديدة عليكم اخلاء هذه المناطق فورًا والانتقال إلى المنطقة الإنسانية في المواصي pic.twitter.com/qUH2N0VYlU
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 7, 2024
Five rockets launched from Gaza at Sderot, all shot down
A barrage of five rockets was fired from the Gaza Strip at the southern city of Sderot a short while ago.
The IDF says all five projectiles were shot down by air defenses.
There are no immediate reports of injuries or major damage in the attack.
Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun win Nobel Prize in medicine for discovery of microRNA; Ruvkun is Jewish
Victor Ambros (left) and Gary Ruvkun, winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine. (Nobel Prize Outreach)
The Nobel Prize in medicine is awarded to Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA, a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated.
The Nobel Assembly says that their discovery is “proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function.”
Ambrose performed the research that led to his prize at Harvard University. He is currently a professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Ruvkun’s research was performed at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School, where he’s a professor of genetics, says Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Committee.
Both men were awarded Israel’s Wolf Prize in 2014. Ruvkun, who is Jewish, won the Dan David Prize, headquartered at Tel Aviv University, in 2011. He is married to art history professor Natasha Staller.
Olle Kaempe, member of the Nobel Assembly, speaks to the media in front of a screen displaying a picture of this year’s laureates Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun during the announcement of the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on October 7, 2024. (Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP)
The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.
The announcement launched this year’s Nobel prizes award season.
Nobel announcements continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Oct. 14.
Germany’s Scholz tells Israel: ‘We stand by your side, Hamas terrorists must be fought’
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivers a speech at the Sustainability Conference at the City Hall in Hamburg, northern Germany on October 7, 2024. (Photo by Axel Heimken / AFP)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declares his country’s support for Israel and its battle against Hamas terrorists today, the first anniversary of the attack in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
“We feel with you the horror, the pain, the uncertainty and the sadness. We stand by your side,” he says. “The Hamas terrorists must be fought.”
Scholz also draws attention to the suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, saying that “people need hope and perspectives if they are to renounce terror.”
“That’s why the federal government is calling for a ceasefire, for the hostages to be freed, and for a political process – even if that seems more distant today than ever,” he says.
Netanyahu says Israelis ‘stood up like lions’ after Oct. 7 massacre
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion light memorial candles at a memorial to the victims of the October 7 massacre and subsequent wars in Jerusalem on October 7 2024 (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion visit the memorial honoring the 87 Jerusalemite civilians and soldiers who have fallen since October 7.
“We remember our fallen, our hostages — whom we are obliged to bring home — and our heroes who fell for the defense of the homeland and the country,” says Netanyahu. “We went through a terrible massacre a year ago, and we stood up as a people, like lions.”
Lion issues a call for unity: “From Jerusalem, a city that is the symbol of unity, comes the message of unity, and each and every one of us has the task of continuing together, and acting as one, seeing the common denominator for all of us, for Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, for the State of Israel. As the months of war taught us well, our strength is in our unity. Only together will we win.”
The memorial, which stands opposite the National Library, was dedicated last month.
Health minister urges Israelis affected by Oct. 7 to seek mental health assistance
Friends and family of the victims of the Nova music festival massacre gather at the site in southern Israel one year after the Hamas assault. October7, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
On the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7, Health Minister Uriel Buso calls on members of the public to seek mental health assistance at government-run “resilience centers.”
“Don’t be afraid to ask for physiological assistance – it saves lives,” he tweets, calling October 7 “the biggest mental health event that the State of Israel has ever experienced.”
Speaking at a conference last month, the minister said the government should double the funding for the treatment of October 7-related mental health issues.
Hundreds of family members and survivors mourn at site of Nova massacre
Hundreds attend a ceremony for the victims of the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2024 (Jeremy Sharon/Times of Israel)
Hundreds of people attend a memorial service at the site of the Nova music festival where over 360 revelers were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists on October 7 last year.
Relatives of the victims of the brutal massacre, as well as some survivors, are in attendance to remember their loved ones and mark one year since the Hamas terror group invaded southern Israel and carried out its savage rampage, murdering, raping and wounding thousands of Israelis, and taking 251 people hostage.
Shimon Buskila, father of Yarden (Jordy) who was murdered at the Nova festival, reads out a prayer he composed for the memory of those slain, the welfare of the soldiers fighting in the war, and the rehabilitation of all those injured on October 7 and since.
Dvir Neeman, whose brother David Neeman was also murdered at the Nova festival, recites a specially written Kaddish prayer for the victims of the massacre.
IDF calls on residents of northern Gaza to evacuate to humanitarian zone
The IDF is calling on Palestinians in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun, Jabaliya, and Beit Lahiya to evacuate to the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Strip’s south.
Yesterday, the IDF said it was expanding the size of the zone ahead of plans to operate in northern Gaza and evacuate all civilians from there.
“IDF forces are currently operating with great force in the area. For your safety, you must evacuate these areas immediately,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman says, publishing a map of the zones that are to be evacuated.
He says the Salah a-Din road will be open as a humanitarian corridor between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. today, to allow civilians to flee to southern Gaza.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians are believed by Israel to still be in northern Gaza, among them thousands of terror operatives who survived previous IDF operations that saw Hamas’s battalions in the area dismantled.
#عاجل ‼️ إلى سكان بيت حانون وجباليا وبيت لاهيا وجميع السكان المتواجدين في مناطق الاخلاء A1-3, D6, D2, B1-3
⭕️تعمل قوات جيش الدفاع في هذه الأثناء بقوة شديدة في المنطقة.
⭕️من أجل سلامتكم عليكم اخلاء هذه المناطق فورًا نحو المنطقة الإنسانية المستحدثة في المواصي
⭕️شارع صلاح الدين متاح… pic.twitter.com/8qyt1eZOT8— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 7, 2024
Liberman says Israel must make price of aggression clear to its enemies
MK Avigdor Liberman attends a hearing of the civil investigative committee on the October 7 massacre, in Tel Aviv, August 18, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Israel needs to adopt a comprehensive regional plan to prevent a fourth Lebanon War, in which “any aggressive action against Israel must end in collecting a heavy price from the other side,” Avigdor Liberman declares — arguing that “the massacre and the atrocities [of October 7] could have been prevented, but the political and security elite behaved arrogantly” and ignored intelligence from the field.
Addressing a counterterrorism conference at Reichman University, the chairman of the hawkish opposition Yisrael Beytenu party says that Israel’s enemies must be made aware of the consequences of aggression in advance and that “once a price has been decided, it must be collected, regardless of pressures or threats of any kind.”
The Syrian regime must be warned that if it continues to operate as a logistical base for Israel’s enemies that Jerusalem will conquer the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, and a buffer zone must be carved out to a depth of 16 kilometers (10 miles) in southern Lebanon, he says, pushing for the creation of a “a series of outposts, defensive positions and lookouts” bolstered by three IDF divisions.
And while this area must be made into a no-man’s land, Israel should not annex it or build settlements, although any Israeli exit must be contingent on Hezbollah renouncing its goal of destroying Israel, he continues.
Liberman also calls for Israeli aid to the Saudi-backed Yemeni government as a counterweight against the Houthis, providing it with “financial assistance, intelligence, weapons and training,” and argues in favor of punishing the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “is not the solution, he is the problem” and he must pay a price for his “intolerable behavior and hypocrisy,” Liberman states.
“The price should be a complete separation between Gaza and Judea and Samaria,” he says, referring to the West Bank by its biblical names. The State of Israel must rid itself of any responsibility for the Gaza Strip by closing border crossings and ending the supply of water, food and fuel.
“If Abu Mazen wants to enter Gaza, he should fly to Cairo and enter the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Not through Israel,” he declares, using Absas’s nickname.
Like Abbas, European Union and United Nations officials such as Joseph Borrell and Antonio Guterres are antisemitic and they must pay the price through a declaration that UNRWA is a terrorist organization, he concludes.
Amnesty International says Hamas October 7 crimes were ‘atrocious’
Amnesty International, which has called for war crimes investigations into both Israel and Hamas, calls Hamas’s massacre on October 7 “atrocious” in a statement marking the one-year anniversary.
“Amnesty International Israel bows its head in mourning to commemorate the anniversary of the atrocious October 7 massacre,” says the international human rights organization.
“We shall not forget the many victims, and of course, the men and women who are still kept hostage in Gaza in harsh and life-threatening conditions,” it adds. “Entire communities were in danger of being eliminated on that day by a murderous attack that resulted in some being uprooted and other communities experiencing severe damage to their fabric of life.”
Amnesty also criticizes Israel’s response: “The massacre perpetrated by Hamas and its accomplices, and Israel’s subsequent devastating attacks on Gaza, reverberate in the public discussions held here and around the world. They lead to mutual accusations of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and even genocide, which each party attributes to the other.”
The organization says that accusations of war crimes must be investigated.
Turning to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, Amnesty says that Israel, “like any other countries, has the right and even the duty to allow its residents to live safely within its borders. This certainly applies to dealing with the intentional, continuous, and serious damage that Hezbollah inflicts on the civilian population and the fabric of life of entire communities and localities, and to the danger involved in a potential invasion of those localities and the targeting of their residents.
“However, any such belligerent act must be restricted under the rules of International Humanitarian Law as a moral and value compass — first and foremost refraining from targeting civilians — and not just as lip service to the international community.”
Israeli official says Denmark blast likely stun grenade thrown near home of Jewish community member
An Israeli source tells The Times of Israel that the blast in Copenhagen today was likely a stun grenade.
The source adds that it was thrown near the residence of a member of the Jewish community and not at the embassy itself.
Commander of Iran’s Quds force is ‘in good health,’ force’s deputy commander claims
The commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Esmail Qaani, speaks during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 2020 killing of Guards general Qasem Soleimani, in Tehran, Iran, on January 3, 2024. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)
The top commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, is in “good health,” the force’s deputy commander Iraj Masjedi says according to state media, adding no further statement on the issue is needed.
Two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters yesterday that Qaani had not been heard from since Israeli strikes on Beirut late last week.
Top US general held security assessment with IDF chief on Iran, Lebanon
United States CENTCOM chief Gen. Michael Kurilla (left) meets in Israel with IDF chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi in this handout photo released on June 11, 2024. (IDF)
United States CENTCOM chief Gen. Michael Kurilla held an assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi yesterday, the Israeli military says.
“The general’s visit dealt with the security issues at hand, with an emphasis on Iran and the northern front,” the IDF says.
The visit came amid preparations in the IDF for a response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack last week.
New blast near Israeli embassy in Denmark
A police vehicle is seen as police officers investigate two blasts near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 2, 2024. (Ritzau Scanpix/via Reuters)
A new blast went off near the Israeli embassy in Denmark, police say, on the one-year anniversary of the Hamas October 7 attack on Israel.
The blast occurred some 500 meters (yards) from the embassy in Copenhagen and came five days after two explosions near the building for which two Swedish nationals have been arrested.
“We are of course looking into whether there could be a connection to the (earlier) incident at the Israeli embassy,” Copenhagen police inspector Trine Moller tells reporters.
“There is no indication that this is the case,” she adds, adding that the reported explosion may have been caused by gunfire.
Images on local media showed traces of a blast in front of a residential building some 500 meters away from the Israeli embassy.
Sweden’s intelligence agency Sapo said that Iran may have been involved in the October 2 explosions in Denmark, as well as a shooting near Israel’s embassy in Stockholm the day before.
Japan condemns Hamas terror attacks, expresses concern for situation in Gaza
Takeshi Iwaya, newly appointed minister for Foreign Affairs, arrives at the prime minister's official residence Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
Japan “unequivocally condemned” the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel but says it is “gravely concerned” by the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip one year on.
“Japan has consistently and unequivocally condemned the terror attacks by Hamas and others, and urged the immediate release of all hostages still being held captive,” Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya says.
“At the same time, Japan is gravely concerned about the ongoing critical humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” Iwaya says, pointing to the “large number of civilians” killed and the insecurity facing both Israelis and Palestinians.
“Japan continues to urge all the parties including Israel, to comply with international law, including international humanitarian law, and strongly urges them to steadily work toward realization of a ceasefire,” Iwaya says.
“Japan is seriously concerned about the rising tensions beyond Israel and the Gaza Strip throughout the Middle East region, including the West Bank, Lebanon, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and Iran,” he said.
Medics say two lightly hurt by Hamas rocket impact in central Israel
Medics at the scene of a rocket impact that lightly wounded two people in central Israel on October 7, 2024. Hamas says it targeted Tel Aviv on anniversary of massacre. (Magen David Adom)
Two people were lightly wounded as a result of a Hamas rocket impact in central Israel, medics say.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service says the two women in their 30s were hit by shrapnel, and are in good condition. They are being taken to Asaf Harofeh Hospital.
The IDF says five rockets were launched from southern Gaza’s Khan Younis in the attack.
Hamas claims responsibility for rocket fire on Tel Aviv
Hamas takes responsibility for the rocket fire on central Israel a short while ago, saying that it targeted Tel Aviv.
The rocket fire set off sirens in Tel Aviv and surrounding towns.
Rocket fire from Gaza sets off sirens across central Israel, Tel Aviv area
Incoming rocket sirens are sounding in central Israel following rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
The alerts are activated in some areas of Tel Aviv, as well as Holon, Rishon Lezion, Bat Yam, and other central towns.
The IDF confirms that several rockets were launched from Gaza, but says further details are under investigation.
There are no immediate reports of injuries in the attack.
The IDF warned yesterday that Hamas would likely carry out rocket fire, including at central Israel, on the first anniversary of the October 7 massacre.
🚨 Rocket Alert [10:59:55] (16):
• Dan — Holon, Tel Aviv – East, Tel Aviv – South and Jaffa, Mikveh Israel, Bat-Yam, Azor
• Confrontation Line — Misgav Am, Margaliot
• Shfela (Lowlands) — Tzafria, Kfar Chabad, Rishon LeZion – West
Population: 1,743,000 pic.twitter.com/QunhPhCqDR— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) October 7, 2024
On Oct. 7 anniversary, Hezbollah says it paid a heavy price but vows to keep fighting Israeli ‘aggression’
Flames and smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah sites in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group vows to keep up the fight against Israeli “aggression,” on the anniversary of its terror group ally Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese have paid a “heavy price” for the Iran-backed group’s decision to open a “support front” for Gaza on October 8, but “we are confident… in the ability of our resistance to oppose the Israeli aggression,” Hezbollah says in a statement.
It calls Israel a “cancerous gland that must be eliminated, no matter how long it takes.”
Israel has stepped up its fight against Hezbollah in recent weeks as it seeks to push the group away from the border and allow the return of thousands of residents to their homes in the north.
Much of Hezbollah’s leadership have been killed in strikes and the IDF has begun a limited operation in southern Lebanon.
Smotrich says there is a lot to apologize for on Oct. 7 anniversary
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Knesset Finance Committee meeting, in Jerusalem, on September 16, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Asked during a livestream by the Ynet news site if he wants to ask for forgiveness, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich expresses regret over Hamas’s October 7 attack, stating that “there is a lot for which [to apologize] and to whom [to do so].”
“The State of Israel that we all love and appreciate was not there for dozens of hours for many of its citizens who hid themselves in shelters, closets and attics,” he says.
“We are in the ten days of repentance. To repent is to correct things that we didn’t do well enough,” he says, referring to the period in the run-up to Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.
His comments come after a lengthy post on X yesterday in which he wrote “beware of the sin of arrogance” and noted “the failure of our arrogance on October 7.”
Smotrich has previously taken responsibility for the failures of October 7, telling a press conference last October that “we have to admit with pain and with a bowed head — we failed. The country’s leadership and the security system have failed in maintaining the security of our residents.”
Hamas boasts October 7 attack threatened Israel’s existence
Senior Hamas official Khaled Meshaal (L) and Ziyad al-Nakhalah, (C) Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement during the funeral of the slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, in the Qatari capital Doha on August 2, 2024. (Photo by Mahmud Hams / AFP)
Hamas’s deadly attack on October 7 last year took Israel back to “square zero,” a senior member of the Palestinian terror group says.
“‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ returned the occupation to square zero and threatened its existence,” Khaled Mashaal, the former head of Hamas, says on the Al Arabiya TV station, using the group’s name for the attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage, sparking the Gaza war.
IDF says over 35 rockets fired from Lebanon this morning, causing damage but no injuries
More than 35 rockets have been launched from Lebanon at northern Israel since this morning, according to the IDF.
Some 15 rockets were fired before 7 a.m. at the Karmiel area. Some of the rockets were intercepted and the rest struck open areas, the IDF says.
Shortly before 9 a.m., 20 rockets were launched at the Western Galilee. At least one of the rockets landed in a town, causing damage to several cars. The IDF says most of the rockets launched in the attack were intercepted.
Several more rockets were fired at the Dovev area half an hour ago, which according to the IDF all hit open land.
There are no reports of injuries in the attacks.
Starmer says UK must unequivocally stand with Jewish community in wake of Oct. 7 massacre
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks at a press conference, during his visit to the European Commission headquarters in Brussels on October 2, 2024. (Photo by BENJAMIN CREMEL / POOL / AFP)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the UK needs to stand with the Jewish community in the wake of the October 7 massacre, which he called “the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust.”
“One year on from these horrific attacks we must unequivocally stand with the Jewish community and unite as a country,” Starmer says.
“We will not falter in our pursuit of peace and on this day of pain and sorrow, we honor those we lost, and continue in our determination to return those still held hostage, help those who are suffering, and secure a better future for the Middle East.”
He reiterates his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.
Prime Minister @Keir_Starmer’s statement on the one-year anniversary of the October 7th attacks. pic.twitter.com/EPvdIIQEeB
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) October 7, 2024
IDF announces that a third division has moved into southern Lebanon
The IDF announces that its 91st “Galilee” Regional Division began ground operations last night in southern Lebanon, joining two other divisions already operating there against Hezbollah.
The division is normally responsible for the entire Lebanon border area. It launched ground operations with the Alexandroni, 8th, and Alon reserve brigades, the IDF says.
The division’s 769th “Hiram” Regional Brigade is continuing defensive operations, the military adds.
The Israeli ground operations in southern Lebanon have been described by the IDF as “limited, localized, and targeted raids,” with the goal of demolishing Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the border area, especially in the villages adjacent to Israel, to enable Israeli residents of the north to return home.
כוחות עוצבת ׳הגליל׳ (91) ובהם לוחמי חטיבות המילואים אלכסנדרוני (3), ‘הזקן’ (8) והנח״ל הצפונית (228) החלו בפעילות קרקעית ממוקדת ומתוחמת בדרום ללבנון>> pic.twitter.com/XkOGDSFuEO
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 7, 2024
IDF says hostage Idan Shtivi was declared dead based on new intelligence
Idan Shtivi, killed on October 7, 2023, and his body taken captive by Hamas terrorists from the Nova desert rave. (Courtesy)
The Israel Defense Forces say that hostage Idan Shtivi was declared dead based on new intelligence.
His death was announced today by the Hostage Family Forum.
The IDF says it informed Shtivi’s family yesterday that based on new findings, the army has concluded that he was killed during the October 7 attack on the Nova music festival and his body held in Gaza.
The IDF says that “the decision to declare him dead was based on intelligence information that was confirmed by a panel of experts from the Health Ministry, together with participants from the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Israel Police.”
“The IDF operates with a range of methods to try and gather information on the hostages in Gaza,” the army says.
His body remains in Gaza.
The IDF has now confirmed that 34 of the remaining 97 hostages in Gaza abducted on October 7 are dead.
Herzog says for sake of peace, world ‘must support Israel’
President Isaac Herzog, right, and his wife Michal Herzog, attend a memorial at the site of the Reim-area Nova rave, October 7, 2024. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
President Isaac Herzog says the world “must support Israel” to bring peace, as the country marked the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7.
“The world has to realize and understand that in order to change the course of history and bring peace, a better future to the region, it must support Israel in its battle against its enemies,” says the president in a statement.
Rockets from Lebanon hit home and cars in Kfar Vradim
A barrage of rockets from Lebanon hit a home and several parked cars in the community of Kfar Vradim in northern Israel.
Police say damage was caused by impacts in several sites in the north and call on people not to go to the scenes.
Video on social media shows several vehicles going up in flames.
The Magen David Adom rescue service says it treated one person for acute anxiety.
לפני זמן קצר הופעלו אזעקות באזור כפר ורדים ומעלות שבצפון, זוהו כ-20 שיגורים, חלקם יורטו, נגרם נזק, ב"ה אין נפגעים pic.twitter.com/xZYHoY5Brr
— זירת החדשות (@ZiratNews) October 7, 2024
Marking October 7, Australian PM says local Jews have ‘felt the cold shadows of antisemitism’
Anti-Israel activists rally in Sydney, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says in a statement that the day carried “terrible pain” and his government “unequivocally” condemned Hamas’s attack on Israel a year ago.
Hamas terrorists stormed into Israel on October 7 a year ago, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Albanese said that since the attack, Jewish Australians have “felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day — and as a nation we say never again.”
“We unequivocally condemn all prejudice and hatred. There is no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith,” Albanese says.
He adds that “every innocent life matters” and the number of civilians killed in the conflict was “a devastating tragedy.”
“Today we reflect on the truth of our shared humanity, of the hope that peace is possible, and the belief that it belongs to all people,” Albanese says.
France’s Macron pays tribute to October 7 victims, families
France's President Emmanuel Macron holds a press conference at the end of closing session of the 19th Summit of the Francophonie at the Grand Palais in Paris, on October 5, 2024.(Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron pays tribute to the victims of the Hamas October 7 attack on Israel, on the first anniversary of the massacre in which some some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
“The pain remains, as vivid as it was a year ago. The pain of the Israeli people. Ours. The pain of wounded humanity,” he says in an English-language post on the social media platform X, also posting in Hebrew and French.
“We do not forget the victims, the hostages, or the families with broken hearts from absence or waiting. I send them our fraternal thoughts,” he writes.
Family Forum says hostage Idan Shtivi was killed in Oct. 7 attack, body being held in Gaza
Idan Shtivi, 28, killed on October 7, 2023, and his body taken captive by Hamas terrorists from the Nova desert rave. (Courtesy, the family)
The Hostage Family Forum announces that Idan Shtivi, who is being held in Gaza, was killed during the October 7 attack and his body is still being held.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF and the forum does not release details on why they have confirmed Shtivi’s death.
Shtivi, 28, was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists at the Nova desert rave, where he had volunteered to photograph the event.
He joined the party at 6 a.m., and called his girlfriend at 7, telling her about the missiles overhead and that he was leaving.
Shtivi left in his car with two friends, Lior and Yulia, but was blocked by the terrorists on the road heading north. He then turned the car around and started driving south, but was driven off the road, lost control of the vehicle and hit a tree.
He was last seen in that location, and the car was later found, full of bullet holes and blood. His friends’ bodies were found, but Shtivi was later identified by security forces as having been taken hostage to Gaza.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Families of hostages mark anniversary of Hamas attack with moment of silence in Jerusalem
A man cries as he holds a photo of slain hostage Carmel Gat, taken by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and killed in Gaza 11 months later, during a protest on the terror onslaught's anniversary calling for the hostages' release, in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem, October 7, 2024. (Menahem Kahana / AFP)
Family members of hostages stood on Jerusalem’s Aza Street near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home at 6:29 a.m., some weeping silently, others stoic, as a two-minute siren sounds from a nearby van to mark the hour that the Hamas terrorist attack began one year ago.
“You’re our hope in these hard days,” says Shiri Albag to the crowd of hundreds of supporters. Her daughter Liri Albag is one of five surveillance soldiers taken hostage from the Nahal Oz base.
“It’s been a nightmare of a year,” says Eli Albag, Liri’s father. “We won’t remember the [military] operations,” he says, gesturing toward Netanyahu’s home down the block. “What we’ll remember forever are the captives, Ron Arad and the 101 hostages. Oy vavoy if they don’t come home, because that’s all we’ll remember.”
At least 20 family members of hostages still held in Gaza were present during the early morning gathering, including the parents of hostage Naama Levy, a surveillance soldier; the family of Ofer Calderon, taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz; the daughter of Ohad Ben Ami from Kibbutz Be’eri; the daughter of Keith Siegel; the brother and father of hostage Matan Angrest, a soldier taken hostage from his tank; and the parents of Omer Wenkert, abducted from the Nova party.
Wenkert’s father, Shai Wenkert, recalls hearing Omer move around the house at 3 a.m. on October 7, getting his things together to leave for the Nova desert rave. His mother, Niva, speaks about missing Omer with every cell of her body.
“Time has frozen for me,” says Wenkert. “A year hasn’t passed for me. This is our job, 24/7, there is no recovery until the hostages are home. Who wants to live in a country where they don’t protect you?”
As several hostage family members take turns speaking, the crowd stands in utter silence, the only other sounds coming from crows squawking in the sky above.
The uncle of Edan Alexander, a lone soldier from Tenafly, New Jersey, who was taken by Hamas terrorists from his base near the Gaza Strip, speaks while wrapped in his prayer shawl and phylacteries. His words come from the High Holiday liturgy, and he emphasizes the need for the prime minister to take action.
He tells the crowd that 101 notes were sounded on the shofar in his synagogue to match the number of hostages.
“The day of judgment has arrived,” says Edan Alexander’s uncle. “We all have to face judgment on our actions.”
US spent a record $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since last Oct. 7
The Iron Dome missile defense system stationed close to the southern city of Sderot on October 12, 2023. (Jack Guez/AFP)
The United States has spent a record of at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since the war in Gaza began and led to escalating conflict around the Middle East, according to a report for Brown University’s Costs of War project, released on the anniversary of Hamas’ attacks on Israel.
An additional $4.86 billion has gone into stepped-up US military operations in the region since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, researchers say in findings first provided to The Associated Press. That includes the costs of a Navy-led campaign to quell strikes on commercial shipping by Yemen’s Houthis, who claim to be carrying them out in solidarity with the fellow Iranian-backed terror group Hamas.
The financial costs were calculated by Linda J. Bilmes, a professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, who has assessed the full costs of US wars since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and fellow researchers William D. Hartung and Stephen Semler.
Much of the US weapons delivered in the year were munitions, from artillery shells to 2,000-pound bunker-busters and precision-guided bombs.
Expenditures range from $4 billion to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense systems to cash for rifles and jet fuel, the study says.
Unlike the United States’ publicly documented military aid to Ukraine, it was impossible to get the full details of what the US has shipped Israel since last Oct. 7, so the $17.9 billion for the year is a partial figure, the researchers say.
They cited Biden administration “efforts to hide the full amounts of aid and types of systems through bureaucratic maneuvering.”
IDF says it foiled larger Hamas rocket barrage from Gaza to mark Oct. 7
Hamas planned to launch a larger barrage of rockets at Israel this morning, and its plans were foiled, the IDF says.
In a statement, the military says it “thwarted an immediate threat, following early preparations and the identification of an intention by the Hamas terror organization to fire at Israel.”
Fighter jets struck several rocket launchers and tunnels across Gaza moments before 6:30 a.m., when Hamas planned to carry out the rocket fire, according to the IDF.
Hamas managed to launch just four rockets at the Sufa area at 6:30, three of which were intercepted with the fourth landing in an open area.
Separately, the IDF struck Hamas sites in central Gaza overnight, which it says posed a threat to Israeli forces operating in the Netzarim Corridor area.
Yesterday, the IDF warned that Hamas would likely try to carry out rocket fire and other attacks on the first anniversary of the October 7 massacre, and said it was bolstering forces in Gaza and on the border accordingly.
Israel begins memorials to mark first anniversary of October 7 Hamas massacre
Relatives and supporters of hostages taken by Hamas on the October 7 attack and held in Gaza, hold images of their loved ones during a protest calling for their release in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu residence in Jerusalem a year later, on October 7, 2024. (Menahem Kahana / AFP)
Israel today marks the first anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas terrorists, the deadliest in the country’s history, which shocked the nation and sparked the war in Gaza.
A series of memorials and rallies are planned across the country to commemorate the attack, while the military said it was striking Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
President Isaac Herzog begins the day with a moment of silence at 6:29 a.m. — the moment the attack began — at Kibbutz Re’im, the site of the Nova music festival attacked by hundreds of terrorists, where at least 370 people were killed.
Families of those killed attended the memorial, many of them crying, as Herzog meets the crowd.
Hundreds are also gathered with families of the hostages outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem.
Hamas claims rocket attack from Gaza
Hamas takes responsibility for the rocket fire on southern Israel a short while ago.
The terror group claims to have targeted Israeli forces near Holit and Kerem Shalom.
The IDF said four rockets were launched in the attack, three of which were intercepted by air defenses with the fourth striking an open area.
There were no reports of injuries.
Rocket warning sirens sound in Karmiel, northern communities
Rocket warning sirens are sounding in the northern city of Karmiel and in several communities across the Upper Galilee.
🔴 Rocket Alert [06:52:47] (32):
• Upper Galilee — Shezor, Lapidot, Rama, Carmiel Industrial Zone, Sajur, Migdal Tefen, Nachaf (×2), Bi'ina, Lavon, Har Halutz (×2), Yanuh-Jat, Karmiel, Kisra-Sumei (×2), Gita, Harashim
Population: 283,000 pic.twitter.com/w1Y22uOEUi— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) October 7, 2024
Four rockets launched from Gaza at southern Israel
Four rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel a short while ago.
The IDF says three of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses, while the fourth struck an open area.
Shortly before the rocket fire, the IDF said it was carrying out strikes against Hamas sites and launchers in Gaza.
The rocket fire comes as Israel marks one year since the October 7 massacre.
Rocket warning sirens sound in Gaza border communities
Rocket warning sirens sound in communities close to the Gaza border.
The sirens are activated in Sufa, Holit and Pri Gan.
IDF says it is striking Hamas sites, rocket launchers in Gaza
The IDF says it is carrying out strikes against Hamas sites and rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip.
It says further details will be provided later.
IDF announces death of reservist during fighting on Lebanon border
Master Sgt. (res.) Etay Azulay, killed on the Lebanon border on October 6, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
A reserve soldier was killed during fighting on the Lebanon border yesterday, the IDF announces.
The slain soldier is named as Master Sgt. (res.) Etay Azulay, 25, of the elite 5515 combat mobility unit, from Oranit.
Two other soldiers were seriously injured in the incident in which Azulay was killed, the IDF says, adding that they were taken to a hospital for medical treatment and their families were updated.
According to an initial IDF probe, the soldiers were hit by a mortar.
IDF says suspicious aerial targets intercepted after sirens activated in central Israel
The IDF says that the Israeli Air Force intercepted two suspicious aerial targets launched at Israel from the east, after suspected drone sirens sounded in Rishon Lezion and Palmachim in central Israel a short while ago.
IDF investigating after suspected drone sirens activated in central Israel city
The IDF says that it is investigating after suspected drone sirens sounded in the central Israel city of Rishon Lezion early on Wednesday morning.
Sirens also sounded in nearby Palmachim.
President Biden, First Lady to participate in memorial candle lighting ceremony for October 7
US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will participate in a memorial yahrzeit candle lighting ceremony tomorrow morning to mark the one year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught, the White House says.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will mark the anniversary by planting a memorial tree at their Naval Observatory residence, a White House official says.
It is a custom for vice presidents to plant trees at the official residence, but this will be the first one planted by Harris. The vice president and second gentleman will plant a pomegranate tree, which — among other things — represents hope and righteousness, according to Jewish tradition, the official says.
Air force shoots down suspicious aerial target heading toward Israel from the east, IDF says
The Israeli Air Force shot down a suspicious aerial target that was heading toward Israeli airspace from the east of the country in the early hours of Monday morning, the IDF says.
The target of the interception did not cross into Israeli airspace, the military adds.
UK advises against non-essential travel to Israel, and against all travel to some areas
Britain advises its citizens against non-essential travel to Israel due to a heightened state of tension and violent clashes in the region. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office also advises against all travel in parts of northern and southern Israel, most of the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
“FCDO advises against all travel to the area close to the border with Gaza and all but essential travel to the rest of Israel and the OPTs,” it says in a statement.
Its website offers more specifics on areas in northern and southern Israel where it advises against all travel.
The UK has advised its citizens against all travel to Lebanon since last week.
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