Israel’s army chief said on Sunday that Israeli forces had defeated the military wing of Hamas.
Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said that after a year of fighting since the October 7 attack, the Palestinian terror group had been demolished, even as troops in northern Gaza continue to operate against what the military said were Hamas attempts to rebuild.
“A year has passed, and we have defeated the military wing of Hamas... We have dealt a severe blow to Hezbollah, which has lost all of its senior leadership. We are not stopping,” Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said as he addressed troops ahead of the first anniversary of the October 7 massacre.
Lt Gen Halevi’s remarks reiterate those made in September by Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, who said Hamas “no longer exists” as an organised military force.
Lt Gen Halevi also said Sunday that Israel was fighting a lengthy war and vowed to destroy those who attack Israel, in both Gaza and Lebanon.
“This is a long war, measured not only by capabilities but also by willpower and perseverance over time,” Lt Gen Halevi said. “This is a war for our right to be a free people in our land”.
08:15 PM BST
That’s all for today.
Thanks for following the Telegraph’s live blog. We’ll be back tomorrow with the latest updates on the war.
08:05 PM BST
Quds commander and senior Hezbollah official incommunicado for more than a week
The head of Iran’s Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, and Hashem Safieddine, the frontrunner to replace Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, have not been heard from since the Israeli strike on Beirut late last week, according to reports.
Qaani travelled to Lebanon after the killing last month of Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike and has been incommunicado for more than a week, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters.
A Hezbollah official said Sunday that Israel was not allowing a search for Safieddine to progress after it bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday.
07:31 PM BST
Iran orders airports to close
Iran ordered its airports to close and cancelled all flights overnight ahead of the October 7 anniversary.
State media cited “operational restrictions” and gave no further details. Iran implemented similar restrictions on Tuesday before it launched missiles at Israel, in an attack to which Israel vowed to respond.
Iran fired some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, testing the Iron Dome air defence system and hitting some air bases.
Israel said it would respond at a time of its choosing, and is facing calls to destroy Iran’s oil facilities and strike its nuclear programme.
07:17 PM BST
Syria air defence intercepts ‘hostile targets’
Syrian air defence was intercepting “hostile targets” in the country’s central region on Sunday evening, state media said, a phrase usually used to refer to Israeli strikes on the war-torn country.
“Our air defence systems are intercepting hostile targets in the airspace of the central region” of the country, the official SANA news agency said.
“Israeli strikes” targeted a “weapons depot south of Homs and a rockets depot in the eastern Hama countryside,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, adding that the sites belonged to the Syrian army.
06:54 PM BST
Sole British hostage still in Gaza ‘in hell’, says mother
The sole British hostage still in Gaza a year after she was taken by Hamas has been “stripped of every human right” and remains “in hell”, her mother said as she called for her safe return.
Mandy Damari spoke about her daughter Emily publicly for the first time, through tears, to thousands gathered in London’s Hyde Park for an event commemorating the October 7 attacks on Israel.
The British-Israeli 28-year-old - an Ed Sheeran fan, London Zoo enthusiast, foodie and Spurs supporter, with a mixed sense of classic British humour and “Israeli chutzpah” - had had her “joy and light locked away” for a year.
06:14 PM BST
Government backs police action against shows of support for Hezbolla
The UK Government has backed police to take action against protesters who show support for Hezbollah, after one man was arrested for allegedly shouting support for the banned organisation during a march in central London.
Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through the capital on Saturday, meeting counter-protests at several points on their route.
The Metropolitan Police arrested two people on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation, with one man held after allegedly shouting support for Hezbollah near a pro-Israel counter-demonstration, according to the force.
Another man was arrested on suspicion of wearing or displaying an article indicating support for Hamas, which is also a proscribed organisation, after he was allegedly spotted wearing a parachute, the Met said.
05:31 PM BST
Don’t forget my daughter, says mother of only British Oct 7 hostage
The mother of the only British hostage still captive in Gaza said her daughter had been forgotten by Britain as she called on the Government to push for her release, reports Janet Eastham.
Mandy Damari’s 28-year-old British daughter, Emily, was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from her village in southern Israel on Oct 7 last year.
On the eve of the first anniversary of the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, Mrs Damari appealed to the Government not to let her daughter or the other 100 innocent people still being held hostage “continue to be tortured or even murdered”.
Read the full piece here.
05:08 PM BST
Pictured: Mother of hostage Emily Damari speaks at the Remembering October 7 event
Mandy Damari, mother of hostage Emily Damari speaks at the Remembering October 7 memorial event in Hyde Park, central London.
03:57 PM BST
Young border guard named as victim of Israel terror attack
Border officer Shira Suslik confronted the terrorist, was wounded, and later died from her injuries.
Reports suggest she was 19 years old. She leaves behind her parents and three siblings.
At least ten others were injured in the attack at a bus station in the southern city of Be’er Sheva.
03:22 PM BST
Iran’s leader rewards General for strike on Israel
Iran’s leader pins a badge on top general Amir Ali Hajizadeh for planning the Iranian attack on Israel on Tuesday night. The general is also linked to an attack by Iran against Israel in April
02:39 PM BST
Gaza journalist killed in IDF strike
Journalist Hassan Hamad has been killed in an Israeli air strike on his home in the north of Gaza.
175 media workers have been reported killed since the start of the war..
Hamad worked as a freelance TV reporter and his footage had aired on Al Jazeera and other networks.
Colleagues and the government’s media office in Gaza confirmed his death, and said the late journalist’s home was deliberately targeted after he received threats.
Israel denies targeting journalists.
02:18 PM BST
Israeli media names terrorist
The terrorist who killed one and injured ten in an attack at a bus station has been identified as Ahmad Said Suliman al-Ukabi, Israeli media reports.
Al-Ukabi was a 29-year-old Israeli citizen of Bedouin background, says the Jerusalem Post.
He is reported to be a relative of Muhannad Khalil Al-Aqabi, who carried out a similar knife attack at the same location in October 2015.
The terrorist was shot dead at the scene of the attack.
01:44 PM BST
Paramedic pronounces woman dead at scene of terror attack
At the scene of the bus station attack, paramedic Boris Mento said: “We saw a young woman lying unconscious, without a pulse and not breathing.”
He added: “We conducted medical checks, but her injury was critical, and unfortunately, we had to pronounce her dead on scene.”
During the search by MDA teams, several more injured people were found, fully conscious and suffering from injuries.
“We provided them with medical treatment, stopping bleeding and administering pain relief, and evacuated them to hospital in a stable condition,” the paramedic said.
01:12 PM BST
Israel strikes Iranian car factory in Syria
An Israeli strike hit a car factory in central Syria, a war monitor said, in the latest such strike involving Syria or its border with Lebanon in recent days.
The raids struck an empty Iranian car factory in the central region of Homs, causing only material damage, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Israel has promised to strike back after Iran launched missiles at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa.
The news from Syria follows a night of heavy bombing in Beirut, where the IDF continues its campain against Hezbollah. More than 30 airstrikes battered the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs, where the group has a strong presence.
12:35 PM BST
IDF sends further troops towards Gaza
As the Israeli military prepares for possible terror attacks on or around the October 7 commemoration events, additional defense personnel have been deployed near the Gaza Strip, the IDF said Sunday.
“Following the current assessment, the Southern Command is preparing for both defensive and offensive scenarios over the coming month while ensuring the safe proceeding of memorial ceremonies near the Gaza Strip,” where communities were left devastated on October 7.
A detailed combat readiness plan has been implemented, the IDF said. “The IDF’s Gaza Division has been reinforced with several platoons, with forces stationed to defend both the communities and the border area. The soldiers are fully equipped to defend the region in coordination with local security forces, the Israel Police, and Magen David Adom, ensuring a comprehensive response to any incidents that may arise,” a statement said.
Additional units will be added to supplement the three divisions currently operating within Gaza.
12:25 PM BST
Lebanon postpones start of school year
Lebanon’s acting Education Minister, Abbas Halabi, has postponed the start of the public school year to November 4th as Israeli bombings continue across the country.
In a Sunday press conference, Halibi expressed hope that “the school year will not be lost, despite the difficult circumstances.”
Public schools in safer areas are now serving as shelters for hundreds of thousands of displaced people from southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut, and the Bekaa Valley, which are under continuous airstrikes.
Private schools will continue remotely where possible.
11:49 AM BST
Britain in ‘lockstep’ with allies in calls for Israel to show restraint, says minister
Britain is working “in lockstep” with international allies on calls for Israel to exercise “restraint”, a Cabinet minister has said.
Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said calls for “actions that lead towards a restrained political solution based on a ceasefire” were “unanimous” among the UK’s allies, as he took questions on Middle East from broadcasters on Sunday.
Kyle told the BBC: “We can’t instruct Israel as a sovereign state to do anything, but as key allies we can advise them and the advice is very clear.”
The minister also said the UK was “on standby” to remove British nationals from Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion earlier this week, hitting Beirut’s southern suburbs during airstrikes.
Read more here:
11:38 AM BST
View: The destruction of Oct 7 – through the eyes of a war photographer
On 7 October last year, Ziv Koren was at home in Tel Aviv with his seven-year-old daughter when he woke to the sound of sirens.
‘Over my 35-year career, I have always run towards what other people are running away from,’ explains the Israeli photojournalist from his office in Tel Aviv. ‘I understood immediately that I had to do what needed to be done.
Over the past year, Koren has captured 350,000 images.
11:12 AM BST
Hezbollah were tricked into holding pagers to maximise their injuries
Hezbollah members were reportedly duped into holding their exploding pagers in both hands when they detonated, in a ploy to maximise their wounds.
The booby-trapped devices featured a decryption feature that required the user to push two buttons at once to read coded messages, the Washington Post reported.
During the Sep 17 attack, the devices received text messages saying “You received an encrypted message.” As the device owners attempted to decode the message, the pagers exploded.
“You had to push two buttons to read the message,” one Mossad official told the paper, so that the blast would likely “wound both their hands,” rendering the user “incapable to fight.”
Less than a minute after that, thousands of other pagers were detonated by remote command, regardless of whether the user touched his device.
As many as 3,000 Hezbollah officers and members were thought to have been killed or injured in the attack, along with an unknown number of civilians.
10:56 AM BST
Lebanon’s border villages evacuate as Israel attacks continue
Villages on Lebanon’s border with Israel are in the firing line as IDF forces move deeper into the country.
This includes many Shia areas in southern Lebanon where Hezbollah operates, as well as a few Christian villages like Debl, and Ain Ibl.
The IDF has called for residents to evacuate, but many fear they may never be able to return to their homes.
“We are mostly afraid that our homes will be targeted and that those who have already left will not return,” said Imad Lallous, the mayor of Aan Ebel, told L’Orient-Le Jour.
A 93-year-old woman who refused to leave has been killed.
10:27 AM BST
26 killed in Israel strike on Gaza mosque
An IDF strike on a mosque-turned-shelter in central Deir al-Balah killed 26 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
More were wounded.
“The number of martyrs brought to hospitals as a result of the occupation’s targeting of displaced people in the Ibn Rushd school and Al Aqsa Martyrs mosque reached 26, with several more wounded,” the health ministry said in a statement.
The Gaza civil defence agency had earlier said 21 people were killed in the pre-dawn strike in central Gaza.
The IDF said in a statement that it had “conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre” at the mosque. It did not give a death toll.
10:18 AM BST
Tel Aviv waits as war anniversary approaches
On the eve of the anniversary of October 7, the most deadly day for Jews since the Holocaust, Israelis remain poised for a retaliatory attack against Iran after last week’s barrage of 181 ballistic missiles.
While some feel that to strike on the anniversary itself would be insensitive, others say it delivers a strong message at exactly the right time.
Hebrew media is awash with speculation about what the retaliation would entail, the biggest question of which is if Iran’s nuclear facilities will finally be struck.
However, the reality is that whatever the retaliation, the US will have to give the green light, in spite of the fact that the stronger Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions, the higher he rises up in public opinion.
Under the Biden administration, whose approach has thus far been one more of appeasement than the tough stance taken by former President Donald Trump, it is unlikely that anything more than critical infrastructure will be hit.
For Israelis too, it is felt that the operation against Hezbollah in the north alongside ongoing operations in Gaza, may well be the primary concern before the country truly sets its sights on a major operation in Iran.
10:13 AM BST
Iran’s oil minister visits key oil terminal amid Israel strike fears
Iran’s Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad visited the oil terminal on Kharg island amid concerns that Israel could target it.
An Israeli military spokesman said on Saturday that Israel would retaliate, following last week’s missile attack by Tehran, “when the time is right.”
Israeli officials as quoted as saying that Iran’s oil facilities could be hit in response. U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday that he did not think Israel had yet concluded how to respond.
“Paknejad arrived this morning in order to visit the oil facilities and meet operational staff located on Kharg island,” Iranian media reported, adding that the oil terminal there has the capacity to store 23 million barrels of crude.
China, which does not recognise US sanctions, is Tehran’s main client and according to analysts imported 1.2 to 1.4 million barrels per day from Iran in the first half of 2024.
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