Jerusalem:

Israel said on Sunday that Hamas had violated a ceasefire agreement, which came into effect one week ago and has so far resulted in the release of seven hostages and dozens of Palestinian prisoners.

“During the execution of the second phase of the swap yesterday, Hamas committed two violations. Arbel Yehud, a civilian hostage who was scheduled for release on Saturday, has not been freed, and the detailed list of all hostages’ statuses has not been provided,” said a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington DC:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken isn’t having the best final days in office, with the last 48 hours being particularly unforgiving for the top diplomat facing heat over controversial decisions taken by him during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Far from the farewell he probably hoped for, Antony Blinken’s last press conference as Secretary of State turned out to be a nightmarish experience as he found himself on the receiving end of a verbal lashing by two journalists covering the Gaza war.

Chaos ensued as independent journalist Sam Husseini confronted Mr Blinken while he was defending the Biden administration’s decisions and policies during the 15-month war in Gaza. “Everyone from Amnesty International to the ICJ (International Court of Justice) is saying Israel is doing genocide and extermination, and you’re telling me to respect the process?” Mr Husseini questioned.

Moments later, while he was sitting quiet after the verbal confrontation, security personnel showed up at the journalists desk and started to forcefully lift him up.

Reporter @samhusseini was just physically dragged from Blinken’s briefing. “Why aren’t you at The Hague?” he asked. pic.twitter.com/Nvs10aFjgh

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) January 16, 2025

“Stop manhandling me,” urged the journalist, but it fell to deaf ears. The security, now surrounding him, picked him up and started dragging him out as others watched in shock. Just before being physically thrown out of the room, the journalist shouted at Mr Blinken in anguish, saying “Criminal! Why aren’t you at The Hague!?” referring to the International Criminal Court which had sentenced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November last year.

An uncomfortable silence engulfed the conference room. Mr Blinken, clam and unmoved by what just happened, continued his defense of United States’ policy in Gaza and support to Israel’s Netanyahu, though, he stressed, “with differences” on many counts.

Just as he was about to continue his briefing, another journalist – Max Blumenthal, news editor of Grayzone, interrupted him in a harsh, accusatory tone. “Why did you keep the bombs flowing when we had a deal in May?” he asked, immediately following it with a series of questions accusing Mr Blinken of being a “Zionist”.

“Why did you sacrifice the rules-based order on the mantle of your commitment to Zionism? Why did you allow my friends to be massacred? Why did you ” he shouted.

My final words for Tony Blinken, Secretary of Genocide, and his smirking press secretary, Matt Miller pic.twitter.com/DuLnepSwDl

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) January 16, 2025

“Your father-in-law was an Israeli lobbyist, your grandfather was an Israeli lobbyist – Are you compromised by Israel? Why did you let the holocaust of our times to happen? How does it feel to have your legacy being genocide? You smirked through the whole thing” he continued in a slanderous tone as State Department officials escorted the journalist out of the conference room.

HECKLED BY A PROTESTER

Just a day earlier, at a farewell address to the public, Secretary Blinken got heckled by a pro-Palestine protester. Blaming him for the “genocide” in Gaza, the woman protester said, “You will forever be known as Bloody Blinken, Secretary of Genocide. The blood of innocent civilians, of children is on your hands.”

The video, which went viral on social media, shows Mr Blinken remaining calm through the insulting rant. He even requested the protester to allow him to respond to those remarks, telling her that he respects her views. But as she continued her shouting, security stepped in, removing her from the venue. He then continued with his speech.

JUST IN: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gets heckled and yelled at by protestors.

“You will forever be known as Bloody Blinken, secretary of genocide.”

“We will never forget” – Yells a lady who is definitely not an dead Arab. pic.twitter.com/yrCg9C9Obd

— Dr Tariq Tramboo (@tariqtramboo) January 14, 2025

Both these occasions – the farewell speech and the last press conference – came immediately after a ceasefire deal was announced between Israel and Hamas, ending the 15-month war, which has left the Palestinian territory of Gaza utterly devastated. The war, which began on October 7, 2023, after Hamas attacked Israel, killing more than 1,200 civilians and taking around 250 hostages, has left more than 46,000 Palestinians dead and over 2.3 million others homeless and displaced in Gaza.

While Hamas’s “terrorist” attack has been condemned worldwide, Israel’s vastly disproportionate military response has been widely called a “genocide”, though Israel has rejected these accusations. The International Criminal Court has even sentenced Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “war crimes” and has demanded his arrest. US and Israel have rejected the order, with the Israeli prime minister defending his actions in the war, calling it “defending the Jewish motherland”.
 

New Delhi:

The American Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defence system was used to intercept a ballistic missile launched at Israel from Yemen yesterday. The missile was reportedly fired by the Houthi rebels, a group backed by Iran.

The THAAD system, deployed in Israel by the United States in October, was activated to intercept the missile for the first time, the Times of Israel reported. Footage circulated on social media showing the system launching an interceptor, accompanied by the voice of an American soldier exclaiming, “Eighteen years I’ve been waiting for this.” 

While the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed the missile’s interception, they did not specify whether the system used was Israeli or American. However, security sources told the Walla news site that THAAD had successfully engaged the missile, the report said. 

The deployment of THAAD in Israel followed an October 1 ballistic missile attack by Iran. The advanced system is capable of intercepting missiles both inside and outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

מערכת ה- THAAD האמריקנית לקחה חלק ביירוט הטיל הבליסטי ששוגר אמש מתימן. אפשר לשמוע את אחד החיילים האמריקניים מתרגש “18 שנים חיכיתי לזה” pic.twitter.com/s4VoMfMhaF

— איתי בלומנטל Itay Blumental (@ItayBlumental) December 27, 2024

The THAAD system, developed by the United States, is designed to intercept short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles during their terminal phase. Unlike conventional systems, THAAD relies on kinetic energy to neutralise threats, destroying incoming missiles through impact rather than an explosive warhead.

A standard THAAD battery includes six truck-mounted launchers, each capable of holding up to eight interceptors, along with a radar and a fire control system. The system’s radar can detect threats from a range of 870 to 3,000 kilometres.

The Houthi missile launch marked the fifth such attack on Israel in just eight days. The Iran-backed group claimed to have targeted Ben Gurion Airport. In response, Israeli warplanes launched strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, including the Hezyaz power plant and infrastructure at Sanaa International Airport.

The Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and 170 drones at Israel over the past year, according to the IDF, however, the majority of these threats were intercepted or fell short of their targets. The group has also disrupted commercial shipping in the Red Sea, targeting over 100 merchant vessels and forcing carriers to reroute.

The Houthis have explicitly linked their actions to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which erupted on October 7, 2023, following Palestinian group Hamas’ attack on Israel. 

Facebook has been accused of severely restricting Palestinian news outlets’ ability to reach their audience during the Israel-Gaza war. A BBC analysis of Facebook data revealed a steep drop in audience engagement for newsrooms in the Palestinian territories, including Gaza and the West Bank, since October 2023.

This decline in engagement is surprising, given that social media has become a vital source of updates for those wanting to hear more voices from inside Gaza. Facebook pages for news outlets like Palestine TV, Wafa news agency, and Palestinian Al-Watan News have been crucial in providing updates to millions of followers worldwide.

Since the war began, outside reporters have been allowed to enter Gaza if escorted by the Israeli army.

Although during wars, audience engagement is expected to rise, the data analysis showed a 77% decline in engagement for Palestinian-based news organisations, while Israeli news organisations saw a 37% increase in engagement during the same period.

Meta, Facebook’s owner, denies deliberately suppressing particular voices, stating that any such implication is “unequivocally false”.

Palestine TV has 5.8 million followers on Facebook and journalists working there showed a 60% drop in the number of people seeing their posts.

“Interaction was completely restricted, and our posts stopped reaching people,” says Tariq Ziad, a journalist at the channel.

Shadow-ban is when a social media platform bans a user’s content without notifying the user, and Palestinian journalists fear the same has happened with their online content.

BBC ran a data analysis on 20 Israeli news channels such as Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Channel 13, which also posted war-related content but their audience engagement increased by 37%.

However, leaked documents and internal messages suggest that Instagram, another Meta-owned platform, increased its moderation of Palestinian user comments after October 2023. This change was made to respond to a “spike in hateful content” coming out of the Palestinian territories, according to Meta.

The impact of these policies on individual Palestinian users is a concern. Five former and current Meta employees spoke to the BBC about the effects of these policies, with one person sharing leaked internal documents about the change to Instagram’s algorithm.

According to the documents, the moderation of Palestinians commenting on Instagram posts toughened. “Within a week of the Hamas attack, the code was changed essentially making it more aggressive towards Palestinian people,” he said.

In response to these findings, Meta pointed out that it had made no secret of its “temporary product and policy measures” taken in October 2023. The company stated that it had faced a challenge balancing the right to freedom of speech with the fact that Hamas is both US-sanctioned and designated as a dangerous organisation under Meta’s own policies.
 

New Delhi:

Syria’s future hinges on uncertainty after the abrupt fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Once thought unassailable, Assad’s rule collapsed under the pressure of a rapid offensive led by a group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front affiliated with terror group Al-Qaeda, and allied factions. 

Bashar al-Assad came to power in 2000, succeeding his father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron grip for nearly three decades. Initially, there were hopes that Bashar would bring reform and openness to Syria. However, these aspirations were dashed as he maintained the repressive structure of his father’s regime.

READ | Fall Of Assads: How An Alawite Family Ruled Over A Sunni Nation For Decades

Assad’s legacy will forever be marred by his response to the protests in 2011, which escalated into a brutal civil war. Over half a million people have been killed, six million became refugees, and countless more are internally displaced. With military backing from Russia and Iran, Assad survived against a fragmented opposition, relying on Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias like Hezbollah.

Preoccupied with their own struggles – Russia in Ukraine and Iran facing regional challenges – neither could offer significant support. Within days, the rebels captured key cities like Aleppo, Hama, and Homs, before advancing into Damascus itself.

A Fragile Transition

Rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani, known now by his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, announced the formation of a transitional authority. Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali has been appointed as the caretaker of state institutions.

READ | “End Of Era Of Tyranny”: Bashar Al-Assad Flees Syria As Rebels Move In

In a statement, al-Jalali expressed his willingness to cooperate with any leadership chosen by the Syrian people.

Despite these efforts, HTS’s history – rooted in al-Qaeda – casts a long shadow over its promises of a diplomatic and nationalist approach. Scepticism abounds regarding its long-term intentions and ability to govern a fractured country.

The end of Assad’s rule does not immediately translate to peace for Syrians. HTS’s past association with extremist groups raises fears of a harsh, authoritarian rule under the guise of Islamist governance. Millions of displaced Syrians, both within the country and abroad, face an uncertain future as they watch the unfolding events with hope and trepidation.

The Russian Setback

The fall of Assad marks a blow to Russian influence in the Middle East. Since its intervention in 2015, Russia has been the regime’s most steadfast supporter, maintaining strategic assets such as the Tartous naval facility and the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia. These bases are vital for projecting power across the Mediterranean and into Africa.

READ | How A Syrian Teen Triggered Al-Assad’s Fall With Graffiti 13 Years Ago

However, Russia’s military focus is currently consumed by its war in Ukraine. The loss of control in Syria raises questions about Moscow’s ability to safeguard its strategic footholds in the region. 

Iran Losing The Axis Of Resistance

For Iran, Assad’s downfall disrupts the “Axis of Resistance” that connects Tehran to Hezbollah in Lebanon through Syria. This network has been crucial for transferring weapons and exerting influence in the region. With Hezbollah weakened from its recent conflict with Israel and Iran’s proxies in Yemen and Iraq under pressure, Tehran’s war strategy will need a different approach.

READ | Mass Hangings, Torture That Destroyed Hope: Syria’s ‘Human Slaughterhouse’

Iran’s preoccupation with Israel, which it views as an existential threat, further limits its capacity to respond effectively in Syria. Israel’s recent targeting of Iranian assets has compounded these challenges, leaving Tehran on the defensive.

Turkey’s Role

Turkey’s role in Assad’s fall remains ambiguous. While President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had long advocated for a diplomatic resolution to the Syrian conflict, his calls were consistently rebuffed by Assad. Turkey, home to over three million Syrian refugees, has a vested interest in resolving the conflict to facilitate their return.

READ | Where Is Bashar Al-Assad? Questions Over Syrian President’s Whereabouts

Ankara has denied direct involvement in the HTS offensive, but analysts suggest that Turkey’s tacit approval or indirect support may have played a role. Erdogan’s priorities include securing Turkey’s borders and countering Kurdish militias in northern Syria.

Israel’s Strategic Thinking

For Israel, the collapse of Assad’s regime represents both opportunity and risk. The fall of Iran’s primary ally in Syria disrupts the supply chain to Hezbollah, but the emergence of HTS as a dominant force introduces new uncertainties.

Israel has reinforced its presence along the Golan Heights, preparing for potential spillovers or attempts by rebels to seize Syrian army stockpiles. The Israeli military is also wary of Iran and Hezbollah exploiting the chaos to acquire advanced weaponry.

New Delhi:

Denouncing the International Criminal Court (ICC), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likened the court’s arrest warrant against him to the infamous Dreyfus trial of 1894.  The Dreyfus trial, which began in 1894, involved a Jewish French army officer falsely accused of treason based on fabricated evidence. 

The ICC’s move accuses Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant of war crimes in the ongoing Gaza conflict, a decision Netanyahu lambasted as “anti-Semitic” and reflective of a “modern-day Dreyfus trial.”

“The anti-Semitic decision of the International Criminal Court is comparable to a modern-day Dreyfus trial – and it will end in the same way,” Netanyahu declared, referring to the wrongful conviction of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French army officer, in a landmark case that exposed deep anti-Semitism in late 19th-century France.

The Dreyfus Affair was one of the most controversial legal scandals of 19th-century France, marked by anti-Semitism and judicial corruption. Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jewish army captain, was wrongfully convicted of treason in 1894 based on fabricated evidence. Stripped of his rank in a humiliating public ceremony and exiled to Devil’s Island, a former penal colony in french Guayana, Dreyfus’s plight became a symbol of systemic injustice and anti-Semitism.

French authorities accused Dreyfus of leaking military secrets based on a scrap of handwriting vaguely resembling his own. The trial, fueled by rampant anti-Semitism, resulted in a conviction despite evidence pointing to another officer, Ferdinand Esterhazy, as the true culprit. The case divided France, with prominent intellectuals like Émile Zola denouncing the injustice in his famous open letter, J’accuse…!

The ICC has issued warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza following Hamas’s brutal October 7 attacks on Israel. These attacks, which left over 1,400 Israelis dead and led to the kidnapping of hundreds, triggered a massive Israeli military response, resulting in immense loss of life and devastation in Gaza. The warrants mark the first time an Israeli head of state has been targeted by the court.

Netanyahu rejected the ICC’s actions as “absurd and false,” accusing Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan of corruption and alleging the decision was an attempt to distract from accusations of sexual harassment against Khan – charges Khan has denied. Israeli President Isaac Herzog described the ICC’s move as a “dark day for justice,” while Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the court had “lost all legitimacy.”

Human rights group B’Tselem, however, welcomed the ICC’s actions, urging international enforcement of the warrants. The group called the warrants “a critical step toward accountability for leaders responsible for crimes committed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
 

Men walk through the rubble at the site of an Israeli airstrike targeting the Ouzai neighborhood near Beirut International Airport in the city’s southern suburbs on November 7, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Lebanon’s Transport Minister said on Thursday (November 7, 2024) the country’s only international airport was operating normally after Israeli strikes on the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, including one in an area near the hub. 

Minister Ali Hamie told AFP that planes were taking off and landing without any issue.

A heater factory next to the airport’s perimeter wall had been badly damaged in a strike, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.

Israel has been at war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah since late September, when it broadened its focus from fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip to securing its northern border.

The strike near the airport came after Hezbollah announced on Wednesday (November 6, 2024) that it had targeted a military base close to Ben Gurion Airport, Israel’s main international transport hub.

The overnight strike in Beirut caused “minor damage” to some buildings but “not inside the terminal building”, an airport official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

He said the strike had affected a maintenance building belonging to a subsidiary of Middle East Airlines, Lebanon’s national carrier and practically the only airline still operating flights there.

Abu Elie, a taxi driver, was at the airport when the strikes hit. “The entire car park shook. People were carrying their luggage on their shoulders and running,” he said. “When I made it to the street, there was so much smoke I had to turn the headlights on.”

The Israeli army had earlier issued an evacuation order for four neighbourhoods in southern Beirut, including a site near the airport.

“Once they sent warnings, we got in the car and fled,” Beirut resident Malak Okail told AFP.

“It has become repetitive,” said Ramzi Zaitar, another resident. “We’ve had to flee our homes several times. Sometimes we sleep in the car,” he added. 

“Death has become a matter of luck. We can either die or survive,” he said.

Since September 23, 2024, more than 2,600 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, according to Health Minister Firass Abiad.

The 13-month war between Israel and Hezbollah has killed more than 3,000 people in Lebanon. File photo
| Photo Credit: –

The 13-month war between Israel and Hezbollah has killed more than 3,000 people in Lebanon, the country’s Health Ministry said on Monday, more than double the number of people killed since their last major war two decades ago.

The war shows no signs of ending, and Israel has said it is carrying out new operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure across Lebanon and in parts of Syria while Hezbollah continues to launch dozens of rockets into northern Israel.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after Hamas’ surprise attack into Israel on Oct 7, 2023 ignited the war in Gaza. Hezbollah and Hamas are both allied with Iran.

For nearly a year, the conflict was mostly contained to the areas along the border between Israel and Lebanon. The conflict dramatically escalated on Sept 23 with intense Israeli airstrikes on south and east Lebanon as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs, leaving hundreds dead and leading to the displacement of nearly 1.2 million people.

Israel began a ground invasion of south Lebanon on Oct 1, causing wide destruction in border villages but making little advances on the ground inside Lebanon. Israel says it is destroying Hezbollah weapons and command centers near the border, including an extensive tunnel system built by Hezbollah.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said 16 people were killed and 90 injured in attacks on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 3,002. At least 13,492 have been injured. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and Hezbollah fighters in its toll. Israel claimed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters have been killed.

In Israel, 72 people have been killed by Hezbollah attacks, including 30 soldiers, according to the prime minister’s office. More than 60,000 people have been displaced from their homes.

Also on Monday, Israel announced it terminated the agreement facilitating the work of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the main aid provider in Gaza.

It was the first step in implementing legislation passed last week that would sever ties with the agency, which Israel says has been infiltrated by Hamas, and prevent it from operating in Israel.

The agency, known as UNRWA, denies the allegations and says it takes measures to ensure its neutrality.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday that it has notified the UN of the cancellation of an agreement dating back to 1967 that facilitates UNRWA’s work. It said UNRWA “is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution”.

Israel controls all entry into Gaza, and aid groups groups have warned that the legislation could severely hamper UNRWA’s work, creating further obstacles to addressing a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Israel says that UNRWA is responsible for only 13% of aid entering Gaza and it says other UN agencies and aid groups can fill the gap. But aid organisations say UNRWA is essential, and the agency says the Israeli figures do not account for the key role it plays in coordinating aid deliveries.

“Without UNRWA coordination, without UNRWA logistics platforms…no UN agency could operate at the scale required,” said Jonathan Fowler, a spokesman for the agency.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US was clear about their opposition to the legislation, and gravely concerned about the insufficient number of aid trucks entering Gaza. “We have serious concerns about the implications of it being fully implemented, as well as our concerns about the underlying humanitarian situation in, Gaza, even before Israel passed the legislation,” he told reporters in Washington on Monday.

The agency provides education, health and other basic services to Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation and their descendants, who now number nearly six million across the region. Refugee families make up the majority of Gaza’s population.

The remainder of the legislation is set to go into effect in three months.

Israel strikes back. Iranian military bases in the capital Tehran and other cities were struck by missiles earlier today. The attack is a ‘response’ to Iran’s air strikes on October 1 when over 200 rockets and ballistic missiles rained down on Israel to avenge the killing of ally Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah. 

The early morning strikes “caused limited damage”, says Iran but Israel claims that it now has “wider freedom” to open in skies over Iran. The aftermath of the strikes resulted in a complete lockdown of the airspace in Iran, Syria and Iraq. 

As per FlightRadar24, an open-source flight tracking website, no aircraft is flying over the three countries. However, Iran has now announced that it will resume flights after the attacks.

Syria said Israel launched air strikes from the occupied Golan Heights and Lebanon on the capital Damascus, prompting them to activate air defence systems. Syria is part of the Iran-led ‘Axis of Resistance’, a group of Shia militias and political groups, against Israel and the US in the region.

Iraq said it is preserving the safety of civil aviation in its airspace and decided to lockdown the skies after the attacks. Prohibiting airspace after attacks is part of standard operation procedures of states for security reasons to prevent intrusion of enemy aircraft in the territory and make it easy for air defence systems to identify friendly aircraft in the airspace.

For Updates: Air Strikes On Iran Military Targets Completed, Says Israel

‘Will Face Proportional Reaction’

The tensions never simmered in the region and now Iran says it is ready to respond to the ‘act of aggression’.

Iran is prepared to respond to any Israeli “aggression,” Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, citing sources. “There is no doubt that Israel will face a proportional reaction for any action it takes,” Tasnim quotes the sources as saying.

The Israeli army has warned Iran that it will “pay a heavy price” if it begins a new round of escalation. Iran said the attack caused “limited damage”.

The United States confirmed it was informed of the impending strike, although no US personnel or assets were involved in the operation. Sean Savett, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, termed Israel’s actions as “an exercise of self-defence and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel.” 

“We urge Iran to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation,” said US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett.

Israel is fighting a “long war”, the country’s military chief told its soldiers and commanders a day ahead of the first anniversary of the 2023 Hamas attack, vowing to wipe out its “enemies” who seek to destroy Israel. Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, Chief of the General Staff of Israel, praised their commitment and courage as the Middle East stared at uncertainty, plunging into more violence by the day. He asserted every day was becoming worse for their “enemies”.

“This is a long war, measured not only by capabilities but also by willpower and perseverance over time. For our enemies – every month, every week, and every day is worse than the one before,” the army chief said in his message.

Hamas, a Palestinian group that runs Gaza, launched an unprecedented attack on Israeli border towns on October 7, 2023, massacring over a thousand civilians. They called their attack the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’, named after a holy site in Jerusalem that remains a bone of contention for Israel and Palestine and is believed to be sacred by both Jews and Muslims. The attack sparked the ongoing West Asia conflict.

Israel marked the war anniversary with vigils at massacre sites while Hamas said the attack shattered the “illusion” of superiority that Israel had.

Read | Satellite Images Show How Gaza Was Reduced To Rubble In A Year

“A year has passed since October 7th, the day we failed in our mission to protect the citizens of the State of Israel,” said the Lieutenant General on Sunday. After the war ends, Halevi said, the enemies of Israel will know there will be no revival for those who seek to destroy the country.

The army chief further said a generation of warriors and commanders with unparalleled experience have emerged from this war. In his message, Halevi claimed Israel has defeated the military wing of Hamas, but continues to fight its “terrorist capabilities”. “We have dealt a severe blow to Hezbollah, which has lost all of its senior leadership,” he added.

Israel is fighting a multi-front war against the Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon on its northern border. It is also fighting Iran, which last week launched a barrage of missiles after the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, besides conducting airstrikes in Yemen.

Read | Caught Between Airstrikes, Gaza Journalist Risks It All To Document War

“We are not stopping – we fight, debrief, learn, and improve…We are destroying our enemies’ capabilities, and we will ensure that these capabilities are not rebuilt, so that October 7th is never repeated,” said the army chief.

The message from the commander-in-chief seeks to boost the morale of the troops with the focus of the war shifting from Gaza to Lebanon and its ally Iran.

With Iran entering the war, Israel now faces an even tougher challenge, especially after a warning from its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Israel will “not last long”.

The Middle East crisis has sparked a rise in oil price across the world. The US and other countries have urged Israel and Iran to avoid an all-out war amid fears of a retaliation to the missile attacks.