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Israel placed its forces on alert Saturday ahead of the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack, after a military official said the country is preparing its retaliation for Iran’s missile attack.
The alert came with Israel engaged in an intensifying war with the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said would be hit “without concession or respite”.
Ahead of Monday’s grim anniversary, military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a televised briefing: “We are prepared with increased forces in anticipation for this day”, when there could be “attacks on the home front.”
The unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian group resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
One year later, although the war in Gaza continues at a lower tempo, Israel has turned its focus north to Lebanon, where it is now at war with Hezbollah, and is focused on the movement’s backer Iran.
The Israeli military said it had killed around 440 Hezbollah fighters “from the ground and from the air” since Monday when troops began “targeted” ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel says it aims to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by almost a year of Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel to return home.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog called Iran an “ongoing threat” after Tehran, which backs armed groups across the Middle East, on Tuesday launched around 200 missiles at Israel in revenge for Israeli killings of top militant leaders.
The missile attack killed one person in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and caused some damage to an Israeli air base according to satellite images.
It came on the day Israeli ground forces began their raids into Lebanon after days of intense strikes on Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon.
An Israeli military official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to discuss the issue publicly, said the army “is preparing a response” to Iran’s attack.
