ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - At least 41,870 people have been killed and 97,166 others wounded in the year-long war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, announced the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry on Sunday. 

The toll includes 45 casualties in the past 24 hours, in which half of them were killed in an Israeli overnight attack on a mosque in northern Gaza, according to the ministry.

The Israeli military has been ordering civilians in the north to immediately evacuate as attacks have intensified, with many sides describing the situation in northern Gaza as “deteriorating”.

Monday marks a year since Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing at least 1,139 people and taking more than 200 people captive. 

A year into the Gaza war, Israel has now turned its focus northwards to Hezbollah, Hamas's Iran-backed ally in Lebanon.

Tensions are high in the region amid ongoing hostilities in Lebanon and Gaza, attacks on Israel by Iran and its proxies, and a potential “severe” Israeli retaliation to Iran’s recent ballistic missile attack.

On the first grim anniversary of the conflict, French President Emmanuel Macron called on the international community to stop arms delivery to Israel “to fight in Gaza.”

"I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza," Macron said in an interview with a French broadcaster, noting that "France is not delivering any.”

Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately fired back, describing Macron’s comments as a “disgrace.”

"This axis of terror stands together. But countries who supposedly oppose this terror axis call for an arms embargo on Israel. What a disgrace!” said Netanyahu, adding that Iran and its proxies are responsible for all the attacks against Israel originating from Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria.

Israeli media on Saturday reported that the military is planning a “serious and significant" response to the recent large-scale Iranian missile attack, in which nearly 200 ballistic missiles were fired toward different regions of Israel.

The Israeli military is also reportedly planning a response against the militias in Iraq, after two of its soldiers were killed in a drone strike launched from Iraq on Friday.