Israel marks Oct. 7 anniversary, issues major evacuation warnings for Lebanon and Gaza (2024)

Hezbollah fired 190 projectiles at Israel today, IDF says

Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal said that the Palestinian group would rise “like a phoenix” from the ashes despite heavy losses during ayear of warwith Israel and that it continues to recruit fighters and manufacture weapons.

One year after theHamas attackthat triggered the war, Meshaal framed the conflict with Israel as part of a broader narrative spanning 76 years, dating to what Palestinians call the “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” when many were displaced during the 1948 war that accompanied the creation of Israel.

“Palestinian history is made of cycles,” Meshaal, 68, a senior Hamas figure under overall leaderYahya Sinwar, told Reuters in an interview.

“We go through phases where we lose martyrs [victims] and we lose part of our military capabilities, but then the Palestinian spirit rises again, like the phoenix, thanks to God.”

Reporting from College Park, Md.

Contrasting Oct. 7 anniversary events held by pro-Palestinian and Jewish students at the University of Maryland were calm and peaceful — but the divide between them seemed wider than ever.

After a federal judge ruled the university couldn’t prevent pro-Palestinian students from holding a vigil today because of safety concerns, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) gathered yards from Maryland Hillel’s Hostage Square Memorial. The reaction to the former’s presence on the anniversary of Hamas’ terrorist attack against Israel was mixed.

Yoni Asher’s wife and daughters were taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7 and returned home after almost a month and a half. Asher reflected on how the girls are healing and called them an “inspiration.”

Former President Donald Trump paid a visit to Ohel Chabad Lubavitch in New York to mark the anniversary.

An Ohel is a structure built around the grave of a prominent Jewish person. This site holds Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson and his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, who were rabbis of the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty.

As is customary, Trump wrote a letter to the rabbis, read it quietly, then tore it up and placed in the enclosed area. He then placed a rock on top of one of the tombstones, which is a customary Jewish way to honor the deceased.

Vice President Kamala Harris said she was “devastated by the pain and loss” that occurred on Oct. 7 as she joined second gentleman Doug Emhoff in planting a pomegranate tree on the grounds of the vice president’s residence in Washington.

The pomegranate tree, among other things, represents hope and righteousness in Judaism.

George Solis and Andy Weir

Reporting from New York

Jewish students at Columbia University said not much has changed on campus since last spring’s widespread protests.

“The culture on campus really hasn’t changed, because the university is attempting to put Band-Aids on bullet holes,” Eden Yadegar, 21, said as students groups staged a pro-Palestinian walkout across campus.

Fellow student Elisha Baker, 21, said: “They’re not letting us grieve. They’re not letting Jews grieve. They’re not allowing us to honor the people that we’ve lost and to raise awareness about the hostages. Instead, they want to make it about them.”

Columbia’s iconic Morningside Heights campus remains closed to visitors, with the school announcing in a letter to students yesterday that even pre-registered visitors would be limited on the anniversary.

The Al Aqsa hospital compound in Deir-Al-Balah was hit earlier today, shortly followed by another strike on a tent nearby, according to a statement from Médecins Sans Frontières, known in English as Doctors Without Borders.

Eight people were injured and treated at the hospital, one of the few medical facilities that remain in the Gaza Strip, the statement said.

"This comes one day after an Israeli airstrike hit a mosque right next to the hospital," the aid group said. "Over the past months, the Al Aqsa hospital compound and its surroundings have been repeatedly hit, while it is one of the only 17 hospitals still partially functional in the Strip."

The humanitarian aid group urged the protection of medical works and facilities, noting a World Health Organization report there have been 516 attacks on health care entities in Gaza.

Ronen and Orna Neutra are praying their son Omer is still alive, hoping he will be brought home after a year of being held hostage in Gaza.

Omer's 23rd birthday is just days away, his second in captivity. His parents have spent the last year urging officials to agree to a cease-fire deal that would bring him home, his father said.

"Hamas is not a nice group. It's a terrorist group," Ronen Neutra told MSNBC's Chris Jansing. "But you have to cut a deal with the devil in order to bring those 101 hostages home — among them, seven Americans — and it's long overdue."

The Israeli military issued evacuation orders for the Burj al-Barajneh and Hadath neighborhoods in Beirut's suburbs moments before it said it had hit a Hezbollah intelligence center.

The IDF said fighter jets attacked the center. It added that it was one of 70 Hezbollahtargets in Lebanon over the last day.

Reporting from Tel Aviv, Israel

Sirens blared across northern Tel Aviv this evening to warn residents to seek shelter as at least two explosions were heard in the central area of the city.

The IDF said the sirens in central Israel followed the identification of five projectiles launched into the country from Lebanon. It added that some of them were intercepted by the air force and the rest fell in open areas.

At least one person connected to a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York has been arrested, the city's police department has confirmed.

No additional details were immediately available. The protest was organized by student activist group Within Our Lifetime.

Reporting from Washington

The U.S. still expects Israel to comply with international law while fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon, which means minimizing civilian casualties, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters today.

Miller did not answer a follow-up question about whether Israel was, in fact, minimizing risk to civilians in its strikes on Lebanon.

“So far, there’s never the question I can answer with a sweeping conclusion here,” Miller said. “As you know, it takes an assessment of individual strikes before we can reach any of those kinds of conclusions.”

Israel's ground invasion of Lebanon is still considered to be "limited" from the U.S. perspective, Miller said, though officials are keeping an eye on the situation. He also noted that the U.S. does not want to see any harm inflicted on the U.N. Interim Forces in Lebanon, who are still in the south of the country.

Israel's military estimated that Hezbollah fired 135 projectiles across its border with Lebanon today as fighting continues to rage.

In several statements, Hezbollah said it had attacked several Israeli sites, including the regions of Haifa, Beit Hillel and Kfar Vradim.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators are marching through lower Manhattan to protest the war in Gaza.

Helicopter video captured by NBC New York showed part of the crowd holding up a large Palestinian flag and another group carrying a “Free Palestine” banner.

Reporting from Kibbutz Nir Oz

The horror is still very much present for Rita Lifshitz, who was in Tel Aviv on the day of last year’s terrorist attack, when Hamas fighters ran rampant in her home in kibbutz Niz Or.

About a quarter of the 400 residents who lived here were killed or kidnapped, including her mother, Yocheved, 86, and father-in-law, Oded Lifshitz, 84. While Yocheved was freed in November, Oded, a peace activist, remains in captivity.

“Before talking about peace, we need our 101 hostages back home now,” Lifshitz told NBC News today on a tour of the community, much of it a ghostly monument to that fateful day, Oded’s burned-out piano unmoved in the year since.

“It’s very difficult to start a life without them,” she added.

Hezbollah said it has told its fighters to avoid Israeli soldiers near an outpost in Maroun Al-Ras for the protection of U.N. peacekeepers, according to Al-Maydeen, a news outlet affiliated with the group.

Al-Mayadeen reported today that a Hezbollah field officer said the fighters were instructed to "refrain from engaging" with IDF soldiers observed around the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL. The field officer accused Israel of using the peacekeepers as "human shields."

UNIFIL said in a statement yesterday that it was "deeply concerned" about IDF activity near its outpost. The U.N. mission described the IDF's movements as extremely dangerous and said it is "unacceptable to compromise the safety of UN peacekeepers."

Established in 1978 and boosted after Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 2006, UNIFIL's forces are coming under growing pressure as Israel's operation in Lebanon intensifies.

Civilians fleeing violence are at risk after Israeli airstrikes on the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, which could be a violation of international law, according to Human Rights Watch.

Although Israel's military has defended the strike on the Masnaa crossing over its alleged use by Hezbollah to transport arms, Human Rights Watch posited that it could still be a violation if the "immediate civilian harm disproportionate to the anticipated military gain."

A border crossing is a civilian infrastructure still governed by the rules of proportionality in war, the organization said.

Lama Fakih, regional director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that the crossing's inaccessibility "threatens considerable civilian harm."

"Even if that crossing is used for military purposes, Israel would need to take into account the expected civilian harm compared to the anticipated military gain from the attack," Fakih said.

JERUSALEM— Israel cannot confirm whether the potential successor to the slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been killed, a government spokesperson said today, following reports that he was targeted in an Israeli airstrike last week.

Asked if Israel could confirm the death of Hashem Safieddine, spokesperson David Mencer told an online briefing: “We don’t have that confirmation yet. When it is confirmed, as and when, it will be on the IDF (Israeli military) website.”

A Hezbollah officialtold Reutersyesterday that Israel was obstructing search and rescue efforts in an area where Safieddine is thought to have been when Israel bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday.

Israel has killed much of Hezbollah’s military command and senior leadership in nearly a year of fighting that began when Hezbollah opened a front in solidarity with Palestinians the day after Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.

Specialist units in Iran's armed forces have prepared 10 scenarios in anticipation of an Israeli response to last week's ballistic missile attack, military sources told the Tasnim state-news agency today.

Israeli leaders have been threatening action after the Islamic regime fired an estimated 200 ballistic missiles at military bases in the country last week.

Iran said those launches were a retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike last month and the death of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran in July.

Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui has been in captivity in Gaza for a year, said the only way for the "madness" to end is through a hostage deal that's become more and more elusive.

“It's becoming that much harder to make sure that within all the violence that has broken out in our region, to understand that the hostages need to be in the middle," Dekel-Chen told MSNBC.

He added that U.S. officials are no longer encouraging on the topic of a cease-fire deal that would release the 101 remaining hostages because negotiations are "deadlocked." Still, Dekel-Chen tells his granddaughters that they are doing everything they can to bring their father home.

Sagui's condition is unknown, his father said. The last Dekel-Chen knew of his son was that he was alive but wounded back in November. The family's fear is growing as residents of the same kibbutz Sagui was kidnapped from are now dead.

Dekel-Chen reiterated that “the only way the madness starts to end, right now, is by completing a deal between Hamas and Israel, get the hostages home, get a cease-fire, stop the suffering in Gaza.”

The U.S. is targeting Hamas' fundraising network in a round of sanctions announced today as the world pays tribute on the anniversary of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

A network of sham charities, a Gaza-based financial institution and a Hamas supporter are the target of these new sanctions, according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. While the charities are purported to provide humanitarian assistance, Miller said the true purpose is to funnel funds to Hamas.

These shell organizations "manipulate the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians for their malign objectives," Miller said.

"This makes it more difficult for legitimate humanitarian organizations to secure financial services," Miller said."We will continue to disrupt the ability of terrorist financiers to abuse the nonprofit sector."

Force alone "cannot be enough" to guarantee Israel's security, French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said at a press conference today.

“The time for diplomacy has come,”he told reporters, adding that the French-American proposal for a 21-day cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah remains on the table.

Reporting from Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon

Rida Rifai has just had to flee his farm in southern Lebanon, but his worries extend far into the future: What if his country starts to look like the Gaza Strip?

“My house and the whole village are destroyed. I am not the only one,” Rifai told NBC News. “Let’s say the war ended now — where are we going to stay?"

"I can’t even think about what’s next. Let the war stop and I’ll go live in my village under a tree,” he added.

“I am afraid that our situation will last like the situation in Gaza,” said the farmer who has been displaced from the village of Kfarkela.

According to Joseph Harfouche, a Lebanese media expert, news organizations have shifted much of their attention from the war in Gaza to the war in Lebanon.

He added: “And that is a very bad omen. They are talking about a long war.”

Nearly every day, Avital Dekel Chen sends a text message to her husband, Sagui. He waskidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7while she and their two young daughters hid in a safe room at their kibbutz in southern Israel.

“Please come back home. Please hang in there a little longer,” Dekel Chen wrote in one message.

Dekel Chen, 34, finds emotional solace in the daily WhatsApp messages to her husband, though she knows he won’t see the texts unless he is freed.

She is compiling an archive for Sagui, mementos of the year he has missed — including the birth of their third daughter. She remains steadfast in her conviction that Sagui will return to her and their children. But they have received no signs of life since November.

How do you give shape to days and months turned formless by grief? In the anguish of the last 12 months, families of the more than 250 hostages taken during Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack have often turned to rituals for comfort and purpose.

Read more here.

Pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian student demonstrators at Columbia University have gathered for protests outside the main library on campus. The two groups are massed on opposite sides of the steps to Low Library, divided by metal barricades and monitored by campus safety teams.

The pro-Israel demonstrators are waving Israeli flags, displaying photos of the hostages taken by Hamas and reading testimonials about the atrocities committed on Oct. 7. The pro-Palestinian demonstrators are waving Palestinian flags, banging drums and decrying Israel's yearlong military assault in the Gaza Strip.

In a speech, one pro-Palestinian demonstrator said the protest movement would continue until the Ivy League university divests from Israel.

Earlier this year, heated protests over the war roiled Columbia and seized national attention, recalling the campus activism of the late 1960s.

Sherry Colvin of Arlington, Va., holds an Israeli flag during an Oct. 7 memorial rally at the Washington Monument today.

A protester holds a Palestinian flag during a march today in Melbourne, Australia, to honor victims of the war in Gaza.

People attend a ceremony today in tribute to the victims of Oct. 7 attacks at the Choral Temple in Bucharest, Romania.

A march in support of Palestinians today in Manila, Philippines.

Scores of people have assembled in a park in Tel Aviv to mark the anniversary of Oct. 7, according to live images from the scene. The mourners are watching a video featuring speeches about the terror attacks, tributes to the victims and testimonials about the hostages who remain in Hamas captivity.

Alongside the video display is another screen counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds since Oct. 7.

The Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for roughly one-quarter of Lebanon's coastline, from the mouth of the Awali River to the border between the two countries, ahead of a maritime operation.

The IDF warned vacationgoers, residents and local fisherman that it will "operate in the maritime area," and told them to stay out of the sea or away from the beach.

"Being on the beach and boat movements in the area of ​​the Awali River line southward pose a danger to your life," the order said.

The Awali River line meets the Mediterranean Sea just north of the city of Sidon, also known as Saida, and north of the Litani River.

Biden expressed his "sympathy and condolences" during a phone call with Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog, the Israeli leader's spokesperson confirmed.

Biden opened the call by saying that his "thoughts are always with the families of the kidnapped, murdered and injured from the Hamas attack" on Oct. 7, Herzog's spokesperson said. Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 250, according to Israeli officials.

Biden told Herzog that the Hamas atrocities served as a "reminder of the absolute threat posed by Iran and all its branches in the region," the spokesperson said. Hamas is backed by Tehrah, and the Iranian regime's proxies in the Mideast includes Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Herzog thanked Biden for his "firm stand by Israel's side."

Inside a church in northeastern Thailand, the Sriaoun family gathered yesterday, their voices rising and falling in song, tears rolling down the eyes of some, as they prayed for the safe return of their oldest son.

Watchara Sriaoun, 32, is one of six Thais believed to be held captive by Hamas since the war began last October.

For a year now, the Sriaoun family, along with their fellow church members, has prayed every week for his return. But there has been scant news.

“We can only pray to God,” said Wiwwaro Sriaoun, Watchara’s mother. “Asking people doesn’t give us answers, and even the village chief or headman cannot confirm anything.”

Osama Muhammad Abu Mustafa was convinced he would become an international soccer superstar. Playing on a local team at the municipal stadium in Khan Younis, southernGaza, he envisioned a future “like Ronaldo.” He was 13.

Even in the midst of war, he worked hard at fulfilling his dream. He was practicing soccer with his cousins when the bombsfell.

“I had the ball — and then a missile fell,” he told NBC News’ crew on the ground in Gaza in an interview in his home, where he was still recovering months after the July 3 airstrike.

What happened next is a blur, he said. But when he woke up, he was in a hospital bed, where he learned that one of his cousins, his aunt and her husband had been killed.

He had also lost his left leg.

“The occupation killed my dream,” Osama said. “They stole it from me.”

Osama is one of hundreds of thousands of children whoselives have been shattered during Israel’s yearlong military offensive in Gaza, which has brought on a humanitarian catastrophe.

Read the full story here.

Vice President Kamala Harris said she was “devastated” by the loss and pain of the Israeli people following the “brutal and sickening” Oct. 7 attacks.

In a statement posted on X, Democratic presidential candidate said she would “never stop fighting” for the release of the hostages, and that she will “always ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself.”

Harris added that she was heartbroken over the death and destruction in Gaza, and that it was “far past time for a hostage and cease-fire deal to end the suffering of innocent people.”

The Middle East is "sinking deeper into conflict" a year after the Oct. 7 attack, the commissioner-general of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said, calling it "a year of profound loss, grief and suffering."

"Twelve months of brutal war have transformed the Gaza Strip into an unrecognizable sea of rubble, and a graveyard for tens of thousands of people, among them far too many children," Philippe Lazzarini posted on X.

More than 220 UNRWA team members have been killed, the highest death toll in the history of the United Nations, Lazzarini said.

In calling for a cease-fire deal, he said: "There are no winners in wars. The only way out is through a diplomatic and peaceful solution."

Israel has a tense relationship with the U.N. and has long campaigned for UNRWA to be disbanded. After the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, Israel accused UNRWA staffers of being involved.

A surface-to-surface missile was fired at Israel from Yemen, the Israel Defense Forces said today.

Sirens sounded across central Israel, including Tel Aviv, as a warning for civilians to seek shelter. Israel's military said the missile was successfully intercepted by the country's air force.

A 12-year-old boy named Hatem Sami Hisham Ghaith died this morning after being shot by Israeli forces in the West Bank, according to Palestinian health officials.

The Ministry of Health said in a statement that Ghaith was shot at the Qalandia refugee camp and later died from a wound to the abdomen.

Israeli officials did not immediately comment on the shooting.

A number of events are taking place in Israel and across the world today as communities gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog held a moment of silence at Re'im this morning, the site of the Nova music festival where hundreds were killed and dozens taken hostage.

In Tel Aviv, families of hostages rallied today near the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call for the return of their loved ones.

And thousands appear prepared to flout the IDF's ban on gatherings in Israel of over 2,000 people with large vigils as well as anti-war rallies.

Memorials, marches and protests are also scheduled in London, Paris, Berlin, Sydney and many other cities around the world.

Displaced Palestinians walk on a dirt road lined with rubble in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City today.

Palestinian boys pull containers to ferry water from a distribution point in Shujaiya today.

In a radio interview this morning, Trump said he believes all American Jews should cast their ballots for him next month because "nobody's done more for the Jewish people than I have."

"I should get 100% of the vote. No person has ever been better to the Jewish people, probably no person, period, to the Jewish people and Israel,” Trump said during an interview on "Sid & Friends in the Morning," a drive-time radio show that reaches listeners in the New York metropolitan area.

Trump reiterated his belief that the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks would never have happened had he been in the Oval Office.

Jewish Americans have overwhelmingly voted for Democratic presidential candidates for decades, though some polls conducted this year have shown Republicans making gains with Jewish voters.

New strikes have hit near the Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport, Lebanese media has reported.

The airport is the only one in Lebanon and has been used by foreign nationals to evacuate the country in recent weeks. It has also been used for aid deliveries from countries like Jordan and the U.K.

Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed news station posted a video with clips of the strikes today. One featured a man narrating in Arabic.

“This is the airport,” he said. Then, as the camera panned to a plume of smoke, he added, “and this is the hit.”

The U.S. mourns the death of “every innocent who died on October 7 and in the year since,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement today.

Hamas' "unspeakable" attack that day "unleashed a year of conflict," he said, before calling for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza.

“Every single one of them must be returned to their families,” he said. “The United States will continue to work tirelessly to bring them home.”

The U.S. condemned Iran’s support for Hamas, he said, adding that the nation stands with Israel “as it defends itself against terrorism.”

The family members of British Embassy staff in Israel have been withdrawn from the country amid escalating tensions in the region.

“As a precautionary measure following escalation in the region, family members of British Embassy staff have been temporarily withdrawn. Our staff members remain,” the U.K.'s foreign ministry said on its travel advice webpage for Israel.

A plume of smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike on the village of Khiam in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel today.Large explosions were also seen near the city of Tyre, in southern Lebanon.

Reporting from Washington

In the past year since their loved ones were taken hostage, family members of the American hostages held in Gaza have been advocating tirelessly to bring them home.

According to a memo shared first with NBC News, they have participated in more than 153 policy-related meetings with U.S. officials.

Among those are three meetings with Biden, a joint bilateral meeting with Biden and Netanyahu, separate meetings with Harris and her running mate, two meetings with CIA Director Burns, and at least four meetings with Blinken. They’ve also met with the U.S. attorney general, treasury secretary and defense secretary.

On Capitol Hill, the hostage families have held more than 65 meetings with members of Congress, including two with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and three with Minority Leader Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Family members also spoke at both the RNC and DNC. They have not formally met with Trump. According to the IDF, at least seven Americans remain in Hamas captivity, with three believed to be dead.

Families and friends of Israelis taken hostage from kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7 have called for their immediate release on the anniversary of their abduction.

Freddie Clayton and Ammar Cheikh Omar

Ten firefighters were killed today in an Israeli attack on a building in the southern town of Baraachit, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

It said in a statement that the raid led to a "massacre of firefighters" who were present in the building and preparing for rescue missions.

Lebanese officials have previously criticized Israel for attacks on emergency personnel. The IDF says it is targeting Hezbollah.

A member of the Lebanese Civil Defense Team told NBC News last week that Israeli strikes had destroyed 40 ambulances in the previous 10 days and that many people had died in the ambulances.

The Israeli military says it is reviewing how Hezbollah rockets appeared to evade Israel’s air defense systems and hit the major northern city of Haifa in a rare attack.

“This was the first real hit in the city,” Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav said of what is believed to be the first successful attack since the 2006 war with Hezbollah.

Israel's emergency services said yesterday that paramedics treated a 13-year-old boy with shrapnel injuries to his head and a 22-year-old man who sustained a head injury after he fell from a window because of one of the blasts. Israeli media said 10 people were injured in attacks on Haifa and Tiberias.

Several buildings and properties were also damaged.

Israel is fighting a "war of revival" in Gaza to ensure that Oct. 7 will never happen again, Netanyahu said today at a government meeting.

"Since that black day we have been fighting," he said. "This is the war of our existence — the ‘war of revival.’"

Netanyahu said the country was "under attack on seven fronts. Our counterattack on our enemies in Iran’s axis of evil is a necessary condition for securing our future and securing our security."

Israel will end the war when it completes all its goals, including overthrowing Hamas and returning hostages home, he added.

A Palestinian woman sits in a makeshift tent next to rubble of a destroyed home in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip today.

Reporting from Washington D.C.

Almost 700 Americans and their families have safely departed Lebanon on private flights organized by the State Department, it said today.

It said a flight departed Beirut yesterday carrying approximately 90 passengers to Istanbul.

The State Department has also worked with other airlines to make seats available for U.S. citizens on existing commercial flights, it said in a statement.

"Israeli aggression" is pushing the Middle East toward the "abyss" of full-blown war, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said today during a visit to Lebanon.

“The Israeli aggression... which started in Gaza and now has continued into Lebanon is pushing the whole region into the abyss of full-blown regional war,” Safadi said in a news conference in Beirut.

Last month, Safadi said in an interview that "Netanyahu and his radical government should not be allowed to take the future of the region hostage."

To mark the first anniversary of Hamas’ attack, the last song heard at the Nova music festival is played before a moment of silence in memory of the people killed at the event.

One year on, Palestinians who have been repeatedly displaced across Gaza in search of safety amid Israeli airstrikes say they are experiencing an exhaustion few can imagine.

"Nobody is OK," said Abdallah Abujaser, a 22-year-old psychology student whom NBC News has repeatedly interviewed throughout Israel's yearlong offensive. "We don't know where to go. We don't know what our fate is. We are all tired," he said this morning.

"We are waiting impatiently for this damned aggression to end," said Abujaser, who now divides his time volunteering to help those displaced by Israel's offensive and taking care of his mother and three sisters after they were separated from their father and brother while fleeing northern Gaza. "All our energy has been drained. We have no energy to continue this way."

Abujasser said he wanted to urge the international community to intervene to help bring about a cease-fire that will bring the devastating war to an end. "Of course I want to, but the question is, will anyone hear me" he said.

"No one will listen," he said. "For a whole year we have been saying, 'Stop the aggression against us,' but no one listened."

Reporting from Tyre, Lebanon

The IDF says the Israeli air force is conducting "extensive strikes" on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

NBC News heard loud explosions in the southern city of Tyre, with video footage showing plumes of smoke emerging from the downtown area.

Omer Neutra, an Israeli-American taken hostage into Gaza on Oct. 7, will soon mark his second birthday in Hamas' captivity, turning 23 next week - but his parents say they're holding on to hope that he'll soon be freed from captivity, even if not in time to celebrate with his loved ones, safe and at home.

"He’s about to celebrate his second birthday in captivityand it's unimaginable for us," his father, Ronen Neutra, told "TODAY" show co-host Savannah Guthrie in an interview this morning. "We just take it day by day and hope that we can push our leaders to do something to bring the hostages back."

He urged those at the negotiating table for cease-fire talks to "take brave decisions" and bring hostage families "a cease-fire," while Omer's mother, Orna Neutra, said she did not feel there was a "sense of urgency" among the Israeli leadership to free her son and the dozens of other hostages who remain held captive by Hamas.

"I don’t know if he’s alive. I pray and hope every single day that he’s alive but for us it's been a prolonged terrorist attack," she said. "We know our son is expecting us to do everything in the world to bring him home," Ronen Neutra said. "And that’s what we’re doing. We'll bring him home."

Freddie Clayton and Ammar Cheikh Omar

The IDF has issued new evacuation orders to more than 20 villages in southern Lebanon today, as it continues its ground invasion in the country.

"The IDF does not want to harm you," spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement on X, urging residents to move north of the Awali River.

Similar evacuation orders were issued yesterday to 24 villages in the same region.

Reporting from Tyre, Lebanon

This morning, Israelis commemorated the moment a year ago when Hamas gunmen broke out of Gaza and went on a killing and kidnapping rampage across southern Israel.

Israel was blindsided and struggled to respond, but Netanyahu has never accepted responsibility for the intelligence and security failings and says an inquiry will come after the war.

Danny Yatom, a former director of Mossad, was critical in an interview with NBC News.

"He is responsible because he got some early warning, even though it was not the exact date, the exact location, but it was an early warning and he did not pay attention to it the way the prime minister should pay attention to it," Yatom said.

ZOUK MOSBEH, Lebanon —In Lebanon, fears are growing that displaced civilians face a fate similar to that endured by Gazans for one year now.

"Godwilling, we will not be like them," one resident, Christy Rizk, 46, told NBC News this morning. "Israel is fighting Hezbollah and its weapons, even though a lot of civilians are being attacked." She suggested that if Lebanon had a president, a position that has remained vacant since October 2022, it would be "easier to negotiate through diplomatic channels."

Chalhoub Issa, a bookshop owner in Beirut, said he believed morale had to "remain high," however, saying: "we have to look to a brighter future."

"We have to be resilient," Issa, 40, said. "Israel didn’t know what it got itself into, and even if it wins, on the military front,it will never be able to advance into Lebanon. And even if it advanced into Lebanon, it won’t be able to sustain it, and if it does it will be at very high cost."

Israel stood up like "lions" after Oct. 7, its prime minister said today as the nation's leaders praised its strength while marking the anniversary.

"We went through a terrible massacre a year ago, and we stood up as a people, as lions," he said at the ‘Iron Swords’ monument in Jerusalem. "On this day, in this place, and in many places in our country, we remember our fallen, our abductees — whom we are obliged to return, and our heroes who fell for the defense of the homeland and the country."

Netanyahu lit memorial candles at the monument, which is dedicated to Israelis killed since Oct. 7.

Earlier, Israeli President Isaac Herzog presided over a memorial ceremony at the site of the Nova music festival.

He said Israel would always remember “who kidnapped, who murdered,” while praising the nation’s strength. “We have a wonderful people and on this day we strengthen it and call for unity,” he said.

Leaders across Western Europe have paid tribute to the victims of the Hamas-led attacks, while expressing their support for the Jewish community and reiterating calls for a cease-fire.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he stood “unequivocally” with the Jewish community, andreiterated his call for immediate cease-fires in Gaza and Lebanon, and “the removal of all restrictions on humanitarian aid into Gaza.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz echoed calls for a cease-fire and a “credible pathway to a negotiated two-state solution,”adding that Jewish people in Germany had the “full solidarity” of the country.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the pain of Oct. 7 remained as vivid as it did one year ago.

One year after their loved ones were abducted by Hamas, families of Israeli hostages gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence this morning and sounded a 2-minute siren, urging him to bring them back.

"We’re here in front of the Prime Minister’s residence to say we’ll never give up, we’re here until we bring them back, we won’t forgive, we won’t forget,” Eyal Kalderon, cousin of Ofer Kalderon who is still in captivity, said in a statement by the Hostages Families Forum.

Reporting from Gaza

Manal Abu Khater, 53, looks after her eight grandchildren at a refugee camp for orphans in the Gaza Strip after her husband and two sons were killed in an airstrike on Dec. 1 in Rafah.

"It is a very heavy load," she said. "I see my sons and husband in my dreams. I still don't understand their death."

In the year since Oct. 7, the family has been displaced numerous times. She thought they would be safe in Rafah, having been assured that it would not be bombed. "I do not feel safe at all now," she said.

"I wish I could go back to my house and old life," she said, crying. "I hope we can smile again."

The IDF has issued urgent evacuation orders for much of northern Gaza in what appears to be a major new offensive in the area.

Spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X that IDF forces were operating "with great force" close to the strip's northern border, and urged residents to evacuated these areas "immediately" for the humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi.

Hamas issued a statement shortly afterward saying fighters were engaged "in fierce clashes at zero distance" west of Jabalia in northern Gaza.

The IDF issued similar evacuation orders yesterday as the offensive began, saying it was operating in the Jabalia area.

Hamas advised residents yesterday not to leave their homes despite the orders, dismissing the IDF’s claims that there were safe areas in southern Gaza.

The IDF has deployed a new division into Lebanon as its ground invasion of the country's south continues.

It said this morning that soldiers of the 91st division began "localized and targeted operational activity."

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it had been a year of 'unimaginable suffering' since Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks.

It said "scores of hostages remained in Gaza," while lamenting the impact of Israeli military operations which it said had resulted in a "catastrophe," with tens of thousands killed and injured.

“No statistics or words can fully convey the extent of the physical, mental and societal devastation that has taken place,” said Joyce Msuya, acting undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

On the anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks, women in Tel Aviv formed a human chain to call for more to be done to secure the release of the hostages still held in Gaza.

The death toll in Gaza has risen to 41,909since Oct. 7, more than 60% of whom were children and women, the local Health Ministry said today.

About 65% of health institutions had been targeted while the remaining are operating partially and at an occupancy rate of 300%, it said in a statement.

At the moment, more than 50,000 pregnant women are deprived of health services and maternity care and 12,000 cancer patients do not receive basic treatments or even painkillers, it added.

President Joe Biden has issued a statement marking one year since Oct. 7, deploring the attacks by Hamas and also acknowledging the ensuing suffering of the Palestinians.

“On this day last year, the sun rose on what was supposed to be a joyous Jewish holiday,” Biden said. “By sunset, Oct. 7 had become the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

He asked people to “bear witness to the unspeakable brutality” of the attack, while condemning “the vicious surge in antisemitism in America and around the world.” He said the United States “will never give up” until the remaining hostages still in Gaza are brought home.

The president also said Oct. 7 was a “dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day.”

He added that “Israelis and Palestinians alike deserve to live in security, dignity, and peace,” and said the U.S. “will not stop working to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza that brings the hostages home, allows for a surge in humanitarian aid to ease the suffering on the ground, assures Israel’s security, and ends this war.”

ErikKurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, met with Israeli military officials yesterday for a "situational assessment," the IDF said today.

Kurilla’s visit focused on the current security issues, with an emphasis on Iran and the northern front, the statement said.

The IDF will continue to deepen its relationship with the U.S. Armed Forces, it said. Washington has been urging its ally to avoid the most escalatory option to strike Iran in retaliation for Tehran's missile attack.

The top Commander of Iran’s Quds Force is in ‘good health,’ the force’s deputy commander has said, amid mystery over Esmail Qaani's fate following an Israeli attack on Beirut last week.

Brig. Gen. Iraj Masjedi told the semi-official Tasnim news agency that Qaani is healthy and actively working, adding that there is no need to issue a statement, despite some suggesting it.

Two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters yesterday that Qaani had not been heard from since the strikes on Beirut, where he was visiting following the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The Quds Force,the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, oversees dealings with militias allied with Tehran across the Middle East, such as Hezbollah. Qaani succeeded Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the U.S., and his death would be a significant blow to Tehran.

A man stands atop a heavily damaged building looking over the war-torn landscape in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, this morning.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last night to discuss Iran's "destabilizing actions" in the Middle East.

In a readout of the conversation, the Pentagon said Austin also reiterated his "unwavering commitment to Israel's security," as well as a cease-fire in Gaza and a diplomatic resolution that would enable citizens to return home in Israel and Lebanon.

Austin also reaffirmed his support for Israel's "right to defend itself," and added that the U.S. remained in place to support Israel and deter further escalation.

Both Austin and Gallant expressed their commitment to deterring Iran and its proxies from expanding the current conflict, it said.

Flight restrictions have been lifted in Iran after conditions were deemed safe, state media reported today, shortening the period of flight cancellations announced earlier by the Civil Aviation Organization.

A spokesperson for the organization had earlier said that flights from all Iran's airports would be cancelled until 6 a.m. (0230 GMT) today from 9 p.m. yesterday.

"After ensuring favorable and safe flight conditions by the Civil Aviation Organization, all announced restrictions are removed and airlines are allowed to carry out flight operations," state media said six hours before the end of the initial flight cancellations deadline.

The flights were initially canceled because of operational restrictions, state media cited the spokesperson as saying without providing further details.

Iran implemented restrictions on flights Tuesday when it launched missiles at Israel, in an attack to which Israel vowed to respond.

A large crater is left in the wake of an overnight Israeli strike in Dahiye, Beirut, this morning, as shattered buildings and charred vehicles lined the streets of the Lebanese capital.

Freddie Clayton

Peter Guo

Freddie Clayton and Peter Guo

Two people are injured after Hamas’ military wing said it bombarded Tel Aviv with a barrage of rockets, with sirens sounding in the bustling Israeli city.

Israel’s emergency services said staff were treating two female casualties "in mild condition with shrapnel injuries."

The IDF confirmed that sirens had sounded due to projectiles fired from Gaza, and that five launches were identified with some falling in central Israel. It said the details were under investigation.

NBC News' team in Tel Aviv heard two explosions.

Earlier, the Israeli military said it struck Hamas launch posts and underground infrastructure in Gaza to thwart an “immediate” threat.

The IDF said it detected Hamas was preparing to launch rockets into Israel and made preemptive strikes throughout the Gaza Strip.

Hamas hailed its attacks a year ago that killed about 1,200 Israelis and saw some 250 others taken hostage, calling on Palestinians to escalate their resistance against Israel.

"We call on our Palestinian people in the West Bank, Jerusalem, the occupied land of 1948, and in refugee camps and the diaspora to escalate all forms of resistance and struggle," the militant group said in statement this morning.

Senior Hamas official Khaled Mashaal also said in a speech this morning that the attack had taken Israel "to square one, and it is now living an existential war, as its self-confidence has been shaken and its psyche has been destroyed."

Iranian Supreme Leader AyatollahKhamenei has praised the Oct. 7 attacks for "setting the Zionist regime back 70 years."

Iran denied involvement in the attack, but supports the Hamas militant group and others.

The region remains on edge as Israel continues tothreaten to strike Iranin response toIran’s missile attack on Israellast week.

Relatives and supporters of Israelis killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack attend a ceremony at the Nova memorial near Kibbutz Reim in southern Israel this morning.

Friends, family members and other loved ones gathered this morning at the site of theNova music festivalin Re’im, in Israel’s Negev region, where Hamas militants killed an estimated 364 people as they stormed into Israel on this day a year ago.

The festival grounds had some of the usual accoutrements, including stacks of loudspeakers and an area where DJs would otherwise use digital turntables and a sound mixer to play trance music. But this event was solemn, filled with a low hum of voices as people remembered those who lost their lives.

Photos of victims were presented on the edge of a stage used by the event’s speakers, who addressed their memories and sorrow in Hebrew. One man wept as he read from a sheet of paper and spoke into a microphone.

Those gathered stood or sat in white plastic chairs, swaying and singing along to music played between the times when people took the stage to offer words about the fallen.

The anniversary of Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attacks is being marked with somber ceremonies in multiple locations, including the Nova musical festival site.

• A year from Oct 7, tens of thousands killed and fears of a ‘forever war’
• Vivid memories of Hamas captivity still haunt released hostages
• From missile batteries to oil refineries to nuclear labs, Israel could hit a wide range of targets in Iran