Israel, on maximum alert ahead of the anniversary of the Hamas attack, prepares a “response” to the Iranian attack

2024-10-05 22:48:22

Israel announced its membership this Saturday maximum alert ahead of the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war in Gaza, and said it was “preparing a response” to Iran‘s aggression against its territory on Tuesday.

“This week we commemorate the anniversary of the war and October 7. We are prepared with increased forces in anticipation of this day,” Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog recalled that the wounds of the bloody and surprise attack by the Palestinian Islamic movement, which governs Gaza, in southern Israel, have not yet been “completely” healed.

The leader also denounced the “permanent threat posed by Iran and its terrorist agents to the Jewish State”, which he defined as “blinded by hatred and determined to destroy” Israel.

Iran fired around 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday, in response to the deaths of Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.

The first was killed in an Israeli bombing on September 27 in Beirut, the Lebanese capital. The second was killed in an attack attributed to Israel on July 31 in Tehran, the Iranian capital.

“The Israeli army is preparing a response” to the attack, an Israeli military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“Israel has the duty and the right to defend itself and will respond to these attacks and that is what we will do,” insisted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel continued to bomb the outskirts of Beirut and other areas of Lebanon on Saturday night. Photo: REUTERS

Instead, Iranian Foreign Minister Abas Araghchi promised it Tehran would respond with “even more force” if Israel launched a retaliatory attack.

Regional fear

Iranian aggression has stoked fears of a wildfire in the Middle East, where Israel is at war with Hamas in Gaza and this month launched a deadly bombing campaign against strongholds of the Islamic movement Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Five Israeli attacks hit southern Beirut and its surroundings on Saturdaythe Lebanese national news agency ANI indicated.

AFP correspondents in the Lebanese capital heard several explosions and saw columns of smoke rising in the southern area of ​​the city.

After weakening Hamas during a devastating offensive in Gaza, Israel announced in mid-September that it would move the “center of gravity” of its operations north to the Lebanese border, where its troops began a ground operation against Hezbollah on Monday.

The Lebanese movement supported by Iranopened a front against Israel in support of Hamas on October 8, displacing tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border.

The Israeli army bombed the southern outskirts of the Lebanese capital on Friday, targeting Hashem Safieddine, Nasrallah’s possible successor, according to Israeli news site Ynet.

The military did not confirm this information, but a Hezbollah source said Saturday that Friday’s attacks began contact with Safieddine was “lost”.

A truck and an ambulance are on fire after an Israeli shelling in Marjayoun, southern Lebanon, this Friday. Photo: AP

“More damage to the enemy”

The Israeli army said Saturday that it had killed 440 Hezbollah fighters since the start of the ground offensive in Lebanon, “including 30 commanders of different ranks.”

“We must continue to put pressure on Hezbollah and inflict more damage on the enemy, without concessions and without respite for the organization,” Halevi said in a statement.

Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel had destroyed “much of the missile and missile arsenal” that Hezbollah has amassed over the years.

“We have changed the course of the war,” he added in a televised statement.

In Beirut, Ibrahim Nazal, one of hundreds of thousands displaced by the violence, said he wanted the war to end. “Our homes no longer exist,” he lamented.

According to the Lebanese Disaster Management Service, more than 2,000 people have died in Lebanon since October 2023, including more than a thousand since September 23.

Lebanese government data approximately 1.2 million are the number of displaced peopleincluding around 374,000 people who have fled to Syria in recent days, according to authorities.

A march in Tel Aviv, Israel, this Saturday, to call for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages remaining in the hands of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Photo: EFE

In the Gaza Strip, devastated after 12 months of war, most of the 2.4 million inhabitants are displaced.

The Israeli army issued a evacuation order for residents of a part of the center of the besieged territory, indicating it prepares to act “with force” against Hamas fighters.

Since the war began, 41,825 people have died in Gaza, according to the latest data from the Hamas-ruled territory’s Ministry of Health, whose data is considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Palestinian ultra-Islamic group’s attack on Israeli territory on October 7 left 1,205 dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli data.

Islamic militants also captured 251 people that day, of whom 97 remain prisoners in Gaza and 33 of them are believed to have died, according to the army.