Israelis held ceremonies and protests on Monday to mark the first anniversary of the October 7 attack as the Gaza conflict has spread across the Middle East and raised fears of an all-out regional war.
Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally in Lebanon of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with Fadi 1 missiles and launched another strike on Tiberias, 65km away.
People respect a moment of silence as they attend a memorial ceremony in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP PHOTO)
The armed group later said it also targeted areas north of Haifa with missiles. Israel's military said around 190 projectiles had entered Israeli territory on Monday. There were at least 12 injuries.
Israel's military said the air force was carrying out extensive bombings of Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon and two Israeli soldiers were killed, taking the Israeli military death toll inside Lebanon to 11.
Lebanon's health ministry reported dozens of deaths, including 10 firefighters killed in an airstrike on a municipal building in the border area. About 2000 Lebanese have been killed since Hezbollah began firing at Israel a year ago in solidarity with Hamas, most of them killed in the past few weeks.
The Israeli military has described its ground operation in Lebanon as "localised, limited and targeted," but it has steadily increased in scale beginning last week.
Israel's superpower ally, the United States, believes the Lebanon ground operation continues to be limited, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Monday.
Israeli fighters carried out strikes on 120 targets in southern Lebanon within the space of an hour. (EPA PHOTO)
On Monday, Democratic US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former president Donald Trump, who is running against Harris in the November 5 presidential election, all held events to mark the anniversary of Hamas' attack on Israel.
The spiralling conflict has raised concerns that the United States and Iran will be sucked into a wider war in the oil-producing region.
Iran launched a barrage of missiles at Israel on October 1. Israel has said it will retaliate and is weighing its options. Iran's oil facilities are a possible target.
An Israeli military statement said five rockets were launched towards Haifa, a major Mediterranean port, from Lebanon and interceptors were fired at them.
The statement said 15 other rockets were fired at Tiberias in northern Israel, some of which were shot down. Israeli media said five more rockets hit the area later.
A surface-to-air missile fired at central Israel from Yemen was also intercepted, the military said. The Iran-backed Houthi movement, which controls northern Yemen, has attacked Israel during the past year in what it says is solidarity with Palestinians under attack in Gaza.
Hamas, which triggered the Gaza war with its surprise attack on Israel one year ago, said it targeted Israel's commercial capital, Tel Aviv, with a missile salvo, setting off sirens.
A man walks as smoke rises from destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. (AP PHOTO)
Israeli airstrikes have displaced 1.2 million people in Lebanon, and Israel's intensified bombing campaign has left many Lebanese worried their country will experience the vast scale of destruction wrought on Gaza by Israel.
Israeli forces issued a warning in Arabic to beachgoers and boat users to avoid a stretch of the Lebanese coast, saying it would soon begin operations against Hezbollah from the sea.
The ceremonies in Israel on Monday included a memorial event for victims of the Nova Music Festival, where militants killed 364 people and kidnapped 44 partygoers and staff on October 7 2023..
In a shock rampage through Israeli towns and kibbutz villages near the Gaza border a year ago, Hamas-led militants killed some 1200 people and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
The huge security lapse led to the single deadliest day for Jews since the Nazi Holocaust.
The Hamas assault unleashed an Israeli offensive on Gaza that has largely flattened the densely populated enclave and killed almost 42,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say.Â
