The Israeli army warned residents to evacuate part of central Gaza on Saturday, October 5, saying the military was preparing to use "great force" against Hamas fighters in the area. The evacuation call is the first in weeks for Gaza as the Israeli military has largely shifted its focus to fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"Hamas and the terrorist organizations continue their terrorist activities within your area and, as a result, the IDF (military) will act with great force against these elements," the evacuation order posted by the Israeli army said, with an attached map listing the blocks to be evacuated. Palestinians living in areas near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza have been warned to evacuate under the latest order posted on X.
Israel has destroyed large swathes of Gaza since Hamas's October 7 attack last year, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly pledging to secure total victory over the militants.
The Israeli military has often returned to areas where it has previously conducted operations in response to reports of resurgent Hamas activity.
Israel marks the first anniversary on Monday, October 7, of the devastating October 7 Hamas attack in 2023 that sparked the Gaza war and has now engulfed neighboring Lebanon, creating a perilous regional crisis.
President Isaac Herzog will lead a memorial service at Sderot, one of the cities hardest hit during the onslaught by Palestinian militants. A rally calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will be held at kibbutz Beeri, where more than 100 people were killed last October 7.
A memorial is also planned at kibbutz Reim, the site of the Nova music festival where militants murdered hundreds of people. In Israel's commercial hub Tel Aviv, events are being organized from Sunday, with families of hostages still held in Gaza planning a demonstration to demand their release.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to deliver a televised address to the nation on Monday, although details of official events to mark the painful anniversary remain unclear. "We are winning. We are determined to continue striking our enemies, returning our residents to their homes and bringing back all our hostages," Netanyahu said in a recent speech.
Last October 7, Hamas militants stormed across the border from Gaza into Israel in what would become the deadliest attack in the country's history. That day, at the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, the militants launched their assault by land, air, and sea.
A year later, the confirmed death toll from the attack, including hostages killed in captivity, has reached 1,205 on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants abducted 251 hostages on October 7, 97 of whom are still captive in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military has said are dead. Hamas fighters stormed army bases, kibbutzim and the music festival, with at least 370 people killed at the Nova festival alone.
Within hours of the attack, Netanyahu declared that Israel was "at war", and launched a military campaign aiming to destroy Hamas. Since then, large swathes of Gaza have been reduced to rubble, and nearly all of the territory's 2.4 million residents have been displaced at least once as a humanitarian crisis worsened.