War rages on multiple fronts as Israel marks a year since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack

RE'IM, Israel (AP) — Israelis held somber ceremonies Monday to mark a year since the deadliest attack in the country’s history, a Hamas-led raid that shattered its sense of security and has since spiraled into wars on two fronts with no end in sight.

Hamas marked the anniversary of its Oct. 7, 2023 attack by firing a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv, underscoring its resilience after a year of war and devastation in Gaza. Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into Israel for the past year in support of its ally, Hamas, launched more than 170 across the border on Monday.

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press Israel’s campaigns on all sides, the military said fighter jets targeting Hezbollah positions bombarded southern Lebanon with more than 120 strikes in an hour. An earlier strike killed at least 10 Lebanese firefighters, the latest of dozens of first responders killed in recent weeks, according to the country's Health Ministry.

In a possible sign of the expansion of its campaign, Israel said it would soon launch operations on Lebanon’s southern coast, telling residents to stay off the beaches and the sea for a 60-kilometer (36 miles) stretch along the Mediterranean.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israeli troops shot and killed a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in a refugee camp, Palestinian health officials said. The military said it opened fire on Palestinians throwing stones at its forces.

A year since Hamas’ surprise cross-border attack, the war in Gaza rages on, even as Israel fights a new war against Hezbollah, escalating its bombing campaign in Lebanon the past three weeks. There is also a mounting conflict with Iran — which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah — that threatens to drag the region into an even more dangerous conflagration.

Two main Israeli commemorations for the day underscored the country’s divisions. One was held by the government. The other was organized in Tel Aviv by families of those killed on Oct. 7 and of hostages still held in Gaza. They refused to join the official ceremony, angry at Netanyahu for security lapses on the day of the attack and for not yet returning all the hostages.

It was a sign of how Israelis’ faith in their leaders and military was shaken when the militants stormed out of Gaza, catching the country unprepared on a major Jewish holiday. The militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250. Around 100 hostages have not been returned, a third of whom are believed to be dead, and cease-fire efforts have ground to a halt.

Israel’s assault in Gaza since Oct. 7 has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, huge areas have been completely destroyed, most of the population have been driven from their homes and hunger is widespread. The Gaza toll rose further on Monday night when at least 21 people, including five children and two women, were killed when two strikes hit houses in the Bureij refugee camp.

Israel’s strikes in Lebanon since late September have killed at least 1,400 people, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, and 1.2 million have been driven from their homes.

Israelis flocked to ceremonies, cemeteries and memorial sites around the country, remembering the hundreds of victims, the dozens of hostages still in captivity and soldiers killed in battle. Commemorations were also planned across Europe and elsewhere.

Before dawn, hundreds of families of those killed at the Nova music festival, joined by President Isaac Herzog, gathered at the site where at least 364 revelers were killed and many others taken hostage. As the sun rose, organizers played the same trance track that was abruptly halted when the barrage of rockets began.

At 6:29 a.m. — the exact minute Hamas launched its attack — the crowd observed a moment of silence. A woman’s piercing wail broke the quiet and booms echoed from the fighting in Gaza, just a few kilometers away.

“When we are here, we are near our loved ones,” said Sigal Bar-On, whose niece, Yuval Bar-On, 25, and her fiancé Moshe Shuva, 34, were killed in the attack two months before they were to be married.

At 6:31 a.m., four projectiles were launched from Gaza toward the same communities that came under attack last year, without disrupting the ceremony.

The military said another five rockets were launched from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis toward central Israel, setting off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv. Two women were lightly wounded, according to first responders, and there was minor damage. The military said it struck the launch sites.

More than 3,000 people attended the alternative memorial organized in the evening by relatives of victims and hostages in a Tel Aviv park, with emotional testimonies from survivors and performances by singers.

That event had been set to draw tens of thousands of people but was scaled back due to the threat of missile attacks.

Shortly before the ceremony began, sirens rang out warning of an incoming ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, forcing people at the site to lie face down on the ground. The military said the missile was intercepted.

Earlier, families of hostages gathered near Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence and stood during a two-minute siren.

“We won’t let you rest until all of them are back, every last one of them,” said Shiri Albag in a speech addressing the prime minister. Albag’s daughter Liri is among the captives.

An official state ceremony in the southern city of Ofakim, one of the communities attacked on Oct. 7, was broadcast after being pre-recorded.

Netanyahu spoke at a small ceremony in Jerusalem, saying: “We went through a terrible massacre a year ago and we arose as a nation as lions.” In comments at a Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said Israel’s continued counterattacks on all fronts are “a necessary condition for securing our future.”

Israel responded to the Oct. 7 attack by launching one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history.

“We lost everything we have,” said Liyala al-Shanar, who fled her home in Gaza City. “We live in a tent that doesn’t protect us from the winter cold or the summer heat.”

The past year has seen a surge of violence in the West Bank, including Israeli raids on towns targeting armed groups, increased attacks by Palestinian militants and Jewish settler attacks on Palestinians.

Monday’s shooting of the 12-year-old took place in the Qalandiya refugee camp during an Israeli raid, according to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency. The Israeli army said its troops operating in the area opened fire on rioters throwing rocks at them.

In Lebanon, Israel has stepped up its air campaign and launched limited ground operations across the border, saying it aims to drive Hezbollah from its border so tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return home. Intensified Israeli strikes have killed many in Hezbollah's top command — including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah — and pounded large areas of Lebanon.

Hezbollah said Monday it would continue its attacks until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.

Israel has also vowed to respond to a ballistic missile attack last week that Iran said was in response to the killings of Nasrallah, top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and one of its own Revolutionary Guard generals.

Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press reporters Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

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Flames and smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, early Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A man takes pictures by his mobile phone of destroyed buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Emergency personnel respond after a rocket apparently fired from Gaza hits Kfar Chabad near Tel Aviv, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

People visit the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A man sleeps on a bench as people hold hands at a memorial marking the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, in Tel Aviv, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

People protest on the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel and call for the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house, in Jerusalem, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Senai Guedalia tidies the grave of her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Yosef Guedalia, who was killed one year ago at as Israel marks the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, at Mt. Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Sara Chen weeps over the grave of her longtime friend, Staff Sergeant Avraham Nerya Cohen, who was killed in action on 7 October. 2023, as Israel marks the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on Monday, 7 October 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Residents run away as emergency personnel respond after a rocket apparently fired from Gaza hits Kfar Chabad Tel Aviv, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A woman reacts as emergency personnel respond after a rocket apparently fired from Gaza hits Kfar Chabad Tel Aviv, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

People stand next to burnt and damaged cars after a rocket, launched from Lebanon, hit an area in Kfar Vradim, northern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A man stands in front of a destroyed car at a scene hit by Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rises following an explosion in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A woman looks at a battle-scarred home at the Kibbutz Be'eri, an Israeli communal farm on the Gaza border, as Israel marks the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A woman looks at charred vehicles burned in the Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas militants outside the town of Netivot, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

People hug at the house of Maayan and Yuval Bar killed by Hamas, as Israel marks the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, at the Kibbutz Be'eri, an Israeli communal farm on the Gaza border, on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

People visit the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

People visit the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Victoria stands in front a picture of her sister, Yulia Waxer Daunt, as she visits the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Victoria stands in front a picture of her sister, Yulia Waxer Daunt, as she visits the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

An attendant walks through a mural with portraits of the victims at the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Families and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza wave photos of their loved ones and the Israeli and U.S. flags during a protest calling for their return, outside a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and families of hostages, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

People cross a bridge with the date 7.10, marking the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

People light candles at a memorial for the victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas cross-border attack on Israel, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the attack, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germany on Saturday was still in shock and struggling to understand the suspect behind the attack in the city of Magdeburg.

Identified by local media as 50-year-old Taleb A., a psychiatry and psychotherapy specialist, authorities said he has been living in Germany for two decades. He was arrested on site after plowing a black BMW into a Christmas market crowded with holiday shoppers Friday evening, killing at least five people and wounding about 200 others.

Prominent German terrorism expert Peter Neumann posted on X that he had yet to come across a suspect in an act of mass violence with that profile.

Taleb’s X account is filled with tweets and retweets focusing on anti-Islam themes and criticism of the religion while sharing congratulatory notes to Muslims who left the faith. He also described himself as a former Muslim.

He was critical of German authorities, saying they had failed to do enough to combat the “Islamism of Europe.”

He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Some described Taleb as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers.

Neumann, the terrorism expert, wrote: “After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar."

A person stands by flowers and candles placed outside St. John's Church near a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)