Hamas fires rockets at Israel as it marks a year since 7 October massacre

Third Israeli military division sent to Lebanon, says IDF

While Israel commemorates the 7 October Hamas attacks, its military is continuing its operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

In a post on Telegram, the Israel Defence Forces said a third division had started "targeted, limited and localised operations" in the south of the country. 

"Yesterday, the soldiers of the 91st Division began localised and targeted operational activity in southern Lebanon," it said. 

It added that the unit had conducted a "significant amount of offensive and defensive operations" to strike Hezbollah targets over the last year. 

"Over the past several weeks, the division conducted hundreds of strikes and eliminated dozens of terrorists," it said. 

Families of hostages still held in Gaza have once again come together to call for the release of their loved ones - and on the Israeli government to do more.

251 people were taken by Hamas militants on 7 October last year - 97 remain unaccounted for in Gaza.

'None of us are doing enough' - Israeli official calls on international community to help bring hostages home

Israeli embassy spokesperson Orly Goldschmidt has called on international communities to apply pressure to Hamas to help Israel bring home the remaining hostages.

251 people were taken captive by Hamas militants during last year's 7 October attack, and 97 are still unaccounted for in Gaza.

Speaking to Sky News, Ms Goldschmidt says the attack marked the "deadliest day for Israelis" and the country is still in "pain and grief". 

Remembering the day Hamas rampaged through the country, she says it was "something that Israel wasn't prepared for" because it didn't think Hamas was "capable of such brutality". 

She adds that the country "wants to understand" how the attack was able to happen, but stressed that it needs help to end the conflict. 

"None of us are doing enough. We need your help, we need the pressure of the international community, the pressure of the British community. We need to put pressure on Hamas... in order to release our hostages as soon as possible." 

Moment rocket lands in northern Israel

CCTV footage captured the projectile falling in Haifa, with the resulting blast injuring at least five people, according to local reports. 

Both Hamas and Hezbollah have regularly fired rockets into Israel over the last year.

Sky over Beirut punctuated by giant fireballs, multiple blasts and sonic booms

Away from the 7 October memorial events in Israel, four blasts have been recorded in Lebanese capital Beirut overnight. 

Fighting between the Israeli military and the Iran-backed, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has escalated in recent weeks. 

Last week, the Israeli military launched a ground operation in Lebanon to target the group, with several areas in the south of the country told to evacuate. 

Our international correspondent John Sparks is in Beirut and says the sky was "punctuated by giant fireballs, multiple blasts, and huge sonic booms" last night. 

"Some of these explosions were accompanied by secondary blasts as well. And the Israeli military said this morning that those secondary explosions were proof that they were able to successfully destroy Hezbollah weapons stores," he adds. 

"I have to say, the pace at which these attacks are coming is such that the so-called civil defence workers here in Beirut cannot get themselves into parts of the southern suburbs.

"They cannot search the rubble. If there are survivors, they are unable, in many parts, to get them out." 

UK defence minister disagrees with France on arms embargo

Defence Secretary John Healey has joined Sky News this morning, as the conflict in the Middle East reaches its first anniversary.

He was asked about arms sales to Israel, and whether he agrees with French President Emmanuel Macron that there must be an arms embargo.

"No," Mr Healey says. "We work a different system.

"We as a government don't supply anything directly to Israel, but where there are export licenses that have a clear risk that may breach international law, then we've suspended those licenses where they could affect lives in Gaza. 

"And I think the most important thing for all of us today is that we redouble our efforts in the Middle East."

The minister says the region "simply can't afford another year like the last".

He urged the international community to "secure a ceasefire".

"A ceasefire in Lebanon that allows the UN plan for a separation zone between the Israelis and Lebanese Hezbollah to be put in place, and a ceasefire in Gaza so that we can get all of the hostages out," Mr Healey adds.

"We can flood the area with aid, and we can start to see the sort of dialogue that could lead in the long term to a peace, a two-state solution. 

"So the Palestinians do have their own state, and Israel and Israelis can live also in peace and security for the future."

Hamas fired 4,000 missiles one year ago - today they fired four

Our Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall is in Kibbutz Re'im, one of the communities hardest hit by the 7 October attacks.

"This time last year, Hamas fired around 4,000 missiles into Israel," he says.

"Today, they fired four.

"That itself shows you that over the last 12 months, the Israeli military has degraded Hamas's ability to ever carry out an attack like they did on 7 October."

But Hamas is "not a force that has been [completely] defeated... despite 12 months of war", Bunkall notes.

As he speaks, artillery rounds can be heard somewhere near or inside Gaza - which is only three miles from the kibbutz. 

"There again are the sounds and the proof of that," he says. 

"Whilst Israel remembers and commemorates those who died and thinks about the hostages that were taken that day, the fighting continues," he adds, noting the more than 40,000 Palestinian people that have been killed in the small territory since the war broke out, according to Hamas-led authorities there. 

"There is grief on both sides, let's make no mistake."

UK 'must stand with Jewish community', says PM as he marks 7 October anniversary

Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK must "unequivocally stand with the Jewish community" as he marked the first anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attacks. 

The prime minister also reiterated calls for a ceasefire in the region, saying people should "not look the other way" as civilians bear the "ongoing dire consequences" of conflict. 

He described 7 October 2023 as "the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust" and said that "collective grief has not diminished" in the year since. 

"Men, women, children and babies killed, mutilated, and tortured by the terrorists of Hamas," he said. 

"Jewish people murdered whilst protecting their families, young people massacred at a music festival, people abducted from their homes. 

"As a father, a husband, a son, a brother, meeting the families of those who lost their loved ones last week was unimaginable.

"Their grief and pain are ours, and it is shared in homes across the land." 

'It's very hard to be here', says sister of 27-year-old killed by Hamas

"It's very hard to be here," says Gal Toar, as she joins hundreds of people to remember the victims of the 7 October Hamas attacks at the site of the Nova music festival in Re'im. 

Her brother, Dor Toar, was one of the more than 350 killed by the militants when they rampaged through the festival last year. 

Ms Toar said the 27-year-old had tried to leave the event as the attack started to unfold, but he died after being stopped at a road block.

His body was not identified until weeks later, she added. 

"It is very hard to be here, you know the feeling to be in the place he was physically and he got murdered here," Ms Toar told Sky's lead world news presenter Yalda Hakim. 

"All the grief is coming in many ways. I can't believe he's not here, he was so funny and so intelligent. I really miss him." 

'We are still in pain' - Israel's president begins three-day commemoration tour

The president of Israel has said the country is "still in pain" a year on from the 7 October Hamas attacks. 

In a statement before he set off on his three-day commemoration tour, Isaac Herzog said: "A year has passed since life came to a halt, the skies darkened, and all of us witnessed the monstrous cruelty of the enemy that sought to bring destruction upon the Jewish people, the State of Israel, and Israeli society.

"We are all still in pain, and we seek to make space for national mourning, for the tears over the terrible disaster that struck us." 

He also pledged to "rebuild and restore" Israel, saying that work will not be complete until all hostages are freed from Hamas.

This morning, Mr Herzog has been at the site of last year's Nova music festival in Re'im, where more than 350 people were killed by Hamas, for a memorial event. 

-SKY NEWS