A year after Hamas stormed southern Israel and killed thousands, killing more than 1,000 Israeli civilians, the country’s military chief told its soldiers and commanders that they were in a “long war” with groups allied to Iran. Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi praised their commitment and courage as the Middle East stared at uncertainty, plunging into more violence by the day.
Halevi told his troops that Israel was fighting an “axis of evil,” including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian group Hamas, as well as other Sunni insurgent groups that are part of what the Iranian leader called his “axis of resistance.” The armed forces were working to defeat these terrorist organizations to defend Israeli homes, businesses, and lives and to stop the spread of terrorism, the military chief said.
As Halevi spoke, sirens echoed across Israel as helicopters rumbled overhead in the skies over Beirut as part of the country’s ongoing air campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah, which has the backing of Iran and is viewed as a proxy of the Syrian government, has fired dozens of rockets at southern cities and towns, including the capital.
The heaviest bombardment of the enclave since Israel’s war with Hamas came late Sunday. The skies over the Lebanese capital lit up with missiles and rockets, and as darkness fell, Israeli aircraft swooped down on some of Hezbollah’s underground tunnels and rocket launching sites.
Hezbollah has retaliated with a barrage of projectiles, some of them aimed at Tel Aviv, the most populous city in the country. It’s a tense standoff that has left thousands of people displaced and the country on edge as it edges closer to a direct conflict with Iran, whose leaders have declared their goal of eliminating Israel.
In Beeri, a kibbutz that is home to many of Israel’s soldiers, family members of Carmela Dan and Noya Dan, who were kidnapped by Hamas in 2023 and died during Israel’s war with the militant group, struggle with questions about what happened to their loved ones. The 80-year-old woman, who had Israeli, US, and French citizenship, and her 13-year-old granddaughter were killed during Israel’s retaliation against Hamas for the siege on the Jewish state.
Her family has been unable to find a grave site for the two, but the shattered remains of their two-story house are still here. The family of three now resides in an apartment a couple of blocks away, where 11-year-old Mohammed and his father sift through salvaged rubble, trying to reconstruct their old life. “There will be peaks up and down,” the daughter, Iris Haggai, says of the situation. “It’s a long war.”
