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Mon, 07 Oct, 2024 - 08:28

Guardian Staff

Ceremonies were held across Israel on Monday as the country marked the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks, with the war it launched in response raging in Gaza and escalating in Lebanon, while conflict threatened to spread across the Middle East.

In the hours leading up to the anniversary, Israel bombed targets in Beirut and Gaza, while Hezbollah rockets struck Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, causing damage to buildings, police said. Israeli media reported five people were wounded in rocket attacks in Haifa and the city of Tiberias.

The Israeli airstrikes battered Beirut’s southern suburbs, in what were among the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Hezbollah last month. Large fireballs lit the darkened skyline and booms reverberated across Beirut.

The Israeli military said fighter jets struck targets in Beirut belonging to Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters and weapons storage facilities. It said strikes also targeted Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Israel announced early on Monday a soldier had been killed along the country’s northern border with Lebanon, the latest casualty since the military launched ground operations targeting Hezbollah positions last week.

Meanwhile, four projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip just minutes after the country began to formally commemorate the October 7 attacks, according to the IDF.

The Israeli military confirmed early Monday it had carried out strikes on al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza, claiming it had become the base for a Hamas “command and control complex”, without providing evidence.

People light candles at a memorial for the victims of the October 7 Hamas cross-border attack on Israel, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the attack, in Tel Aviv on Sunday. Picture: AP/Oded Balilty

Ceremonies and protests in Jerusalem and Israel’s south were scheduled to begin about 6.29am, the hour in which Hamas-led militants launched rockets into Israel last year.

The Hamas attacks that day killed 1,200 people and more than 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures. The following Israeli offensive in Gaza laid waste to the densely populated coastal territory and killed almost 42,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Security forces were on high alert across Israel on Monday, the military and police said, anticipating possible attacks planned for the anniversary.

Families of hostages still held in Gaza — about 100, a third of whom are said to be dead — gathered near prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence and stood during a two-minute siren, replicating a custom from Holocaust Remembrance and Memorial Day.

“We are here to remind [the hostages] that we haven’t forgotten them,” said Shiri Albag, whose daughter Liri is among the captives. Her message to Netanyahu: “We won’t let you rest until all of them are back, every last one of them,” she told the crowd, which hoisted the faces of the hostages.

Elsewhere, Israeli president Isaac Herzog held a moment of silence at 6.29 am — the moment the attack began — at kibbutz Reim, the site of the Nova music festival where at least 370 people were killed.

The memorials came as the region awaited Israel’s response to an unprecedented missile attacks from Iran last week.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday Israel would decide independently how to respond to Iran, even though it was closely coordinating with the US.

“Everything is on the table,” Gallant, who is due to meet US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday, said in an interview with CNN. “Israel has capabilities to hit targets near and far — we have proved it.”

While the US has said it would not support strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, President Joe Biden said last week Israeli attacks on Iran’s oil facilities were being discussed.