Israel steps up attacks in Gaza, Lebanon after a year of war

GAZA STRIP

Israel on Monday pressed its attacks on the Gaza Strip on the war's one-year milestone in the beleaguered Palestinian enclave, with Tel Aviv expanding its ground incursion into Lebanon.

At least 39 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, bringing the overall death toll since Israel launched its war last year to 41,909, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Monday.

The military ordered civilians in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza to evacuate to the “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi.

An Israeli army spokesman, said that recent rocket attack on central Israel claimed by Hamas’ armed wing “will be met with extreme force.”

The army said earlier the rockets were launched from Khan Younis with medics reporting two minor injuries in Tel Aviv.

The group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said the rocket fire was in response to “Israeli massacres against civilians and the deliberate displacement of our people.”

Marking the first anniversary of the war in Gaza, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the “unrelenting tragedy” in the enclave must end.

Israeli attacks also continued in Lebanon as two major hospitals in Beirut's southern suburbs are unable to provide service following overnight airstrikes.

The Israeli army also extended its incursion as it deployed a new division.

A military statement announced the army’s 91st Galilee Division, which includes the 3rd and 8th Reserve Brigades and the Northern Nahal Brigade 228, was dispatched into southern Lebanon.

“Since the beginning of the war, the 91st Division has conducted a significant amount of offensive and defensive operations in order to degrade and strike the Hezbollah terrorist organization and its infrastructure in southern Lebanon, using ground and aerial strikes,” the statement said.

The Israeli military on Monday warned people in over a dozen towns and villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate, including the coastal town where the U.N. peacekeeping mission is headquartered.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, is headquartered in Naqoura, not far from the coastal city of Tyre.

Lebanon’s government estimates that some 1.2 million people have been displaced in the fighting and it's struggling to support them.

Rocket sirens and blasts were heard in Haifa in northern Israel late on Oct. 6, and Hezbollah claimed the attack.

Israel’s military said at least five projectiles were identified coming from Lebanon and “fallen projectiles” were found in the area.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday to bring back all hostages still held in Gaza, as Israel marked the first anniversary of the attack by Hamas.

Meanwhile, a new blast went off near the Israeli embassy in Denmark, police said.

The blast occurred some 500 meters (yards) from the embassy in Copenhagen and came five days after two explosions near the building for which two Swedish nationals have been arrested.

“We are of course looking into whether there could be a connection to the [earlier] incident at the Israeli embassy,” Copenhagen police inspector Trine Moller tells reporters.