ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Palestinian Hamas announced on Monday they fired a barrage of rockets at Israel’s capital city Tel Aviv, as the country marked the first grim anniversary of the militant group’s October 7 attacks.
Monday marked a year since Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing at least 1,139 people and taking more than 200 people captive.
The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades "struck deep into the occupation's territory, targeting the city of Tel Aviv with a barrage of M90 missiles as part of the ongoing war of attrition," the group said in a statement.
At the one-year-anniversary of their al-Aqsa Flood operation, Hamas said October 7 was a "historic milestone in the struggle and a natural response to the Zionist plans aimed at liquidating our national cause.”
“The cowardly assassination crimes carried out by the occupation against the leaders and symbols of the resistance will only make us stronger and more resilient,” it added.
For his part, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei wrote in Hebrew on social media platform X that Hamas’ al-Aqsa Flood “set back the Zionist regime by 70 years.”
A year after the events of October 7, Gaza is now a city in ruins, devastated by the Israeli military's ongoing brutal offensive which has killed nearly 42,000 and displaced around 2 million others pic.twitter.com/I0gtsj1RyO
— The New Region (@thenewregion) October 7, 2024
Since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel last October, Israel has killed 41,909 people and wounded 97,303 others in their airstrikes on Gaza, one of the world’s most densely populated little enclaves, the Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza reported on Monday.
The toll includes 39 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the ministry.
Marking the October 7 anniversary, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised on Monday to bring back all hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
"On this day, in this place, and in many places across our country, we remember our dead, our hostages, whom we are obligated to bring back and our heroes who fell in defence of the homeland and the nation. We went through a terrible massacre a year ago," Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office.
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.
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