Israel-Lebanon latest: Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa as Israel on high alert for October 7 Hamas attack anniversary

People in Israel are holding vigils and sombre ceremonies to mark a year since the October 7 Hamas attack which sparked the war in Gaza.

At 6.30am (local time) – the exact hour Hamas launched its attack – the families of those killed at the Nova music festival, joined by Israeli president Isaac Herzog, gathered at the site where almost 400 revelers were gunned down and several taken hostage.

After briefly playing the same trance music that was blared during the festival, hundreds of family members and friends of the victims stood for a moment of silence.

“When we are here, we are near our loved ones, this is the time they danced and fled,” said Sigal Bar-On, whose niece Yuval Bar-On, 25, and her fiancee Moshe Shuva, 34, were supposed to get married in December 2023.

“We are here to remind [the hostages] that we haven’t forgotten them,” said Shiri Albag, whose daughter Liri is among the captives, according to the Associated Press.

“We won’t let you (Netanyahu) rest until all of them are back, every last one of them,” she told the crowd, which hoisted the faces of the hostages.

Last year’s Hamas attacks killed 1,200 people and more than 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures.

Palestinian militant group Hamas yesterday praised its 7 October attack on Israel as “glorious”.

The comments by Qatar-based Hamas member Khalil Al-Hayya came on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the massacre in southern Israel that sparked a bloody war in Gaza.

Israel intensified bombardments in Lebanon and Gaza on the eve of the 7 October attacks anniversary.

Israeli air strikes battered Beirut’s southern suburbs yesterday in the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah last month.

Watch live as a memorial ceremony takes place at the Nova Music Festival site for victims of 7 October attack one year on.

Thousands of Israelis are expected to visit the location of a rave party where Hamas killed 364 and kidnapped 44 partygoers and staff on October 7, to pay tribute and mourn the victims as Israel marks the first anniversary of Hamas attacks.

Hezbollah rockets hit Israel’s third-largest city of Haifa early today, in the first direct attack on the northern city that evaded the military’s usually reliable air defence systems.

Hezbollah said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with a salvo of “Fadi 1” missiles. Two rockets hit Haifa and five hit Tiberias, according to Israeli media.

At least 10 people were wounded in Haifa and Tiberias.“This was the first real hit in the city,” said Haifa mayor Yona Yahav.

Israel’s military said five rockets were launched at Haifa from Lebanon, adding, “interceptors were fired”. “Fallen projectiles were identified in the area. The incident is under review.”

Since then, Israel’s retaliatory bombardment of Gaza has killed almost 42,000 people, the majority women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry. A further 10,000 are thought to be under the rubble and an unknown number have been taken into Israeli detention. Swathes of Gaza has been razed to the ground.

The Independent spoke to those inside Gaza about what they have been through over the last year.

Ziad Abdul-Dayem, 55, is a paramedic and ambulance driver. In November he spent 12 hours digging through rubble, trying to rescue nearly a dozen members of his family killed in an Israeli airstrike. He risks his life working day and night to pull survivors from collapsed buildings.

Bel Trew and Nedal Hamdouna report.

One soldier was killed in combat in northern Israel and two others were severely injured, Israel’s military said this morning. The 25-year-old reserve soldier died while fighting on the Israel-Lebanon border, it added.

Meanwhile, Israel said it intercepted two aerial targets launched from the east after sirens went off in the central areas of Rishon Letsiyon and Palmachim on the one-year anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attacks.

These are the key warnings made by the UK Foreign Office for the Gulf region, and individual advice for Qatar, Oman and the UAE (including Dubai) from the US State Department and the Government of Canada.

The Independent has also assessed current flight plans in and out of major airports, sampling typical routings for overnight flights from the UK arriving in the Gulf area.

Key flights are tracking south of the conflict zones, typically adding 30 minutes to journey times in either direction – or an hour for round-trips – and jeopardising connections at hub airports.

Israel today claimed 726 of its soldiers had died in the year-long war in Gaza.

Of these, 380 were killed during the 7 October Hamas attacks last year, and the other 346 died in the subsequent Gaza ground offensive starting 27 October 2023.

At least 56 soldiers died as a result of “operational accidents”, which the military did not define.

Since the start of the war, 13,200 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza, the military said. Another 12,400 were fired from Lebanon, while 60 came from Syria, 180 from Yemen and 400 from Iran, it added.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant Israel would decide independently how to respond to Iran even though it was closely coordinating with longtime ally the US.

Iran launched a missile attack on Israel last week in response to its operations in Lebanon and Gaza, where Hezbollah and Hamas militants are Tehran’s allies in the “Axis of Resistance”.

“Everything is on the table,” Mr Gallant, who is due to meet US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday.

“Israel has capabilities to hit targets near and far areas, we have proved it,” the minister told CNN.

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

Israel snubbed a US-backed push for a ceasefire in launching ground operations in Lebanon.

Israel is on high alert for possible attacks on the one-year anniversary of the 7 October Hamas assault on southern Israel.

“We are ready with increased forces in anticipation for this day,” said military spokesperson Admiral Daniel Hagari, adding that there could be “attacks on the home front”.

Israel will today hold memorials for the victims of the Hamas attack.

The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies. More than 100 hostages remain held by Hamas.

Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run Strip.