Israeli President marks a year 'since life came to a halt, the skies darkened, and all of us witnessed monstrous cruelty': IDF releases new footage of Oct 7 attacks, hostage families tell of agony and

Israel 's President has marked a year since the October 7 massacre with a moving statement as the IDF released new footage of the attacks a year ago.

President Isaac Herzog said on the anniversary of the atrocities committed by Hamas this time last year: '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 said in a statement.

It comes as the IDF released never-before-seen footage of the attacks, showing Israeli soldiers fighting Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Re'im on the morning of the onslaught.

The video clips show a civilian treating an injured soldier as well as a Hamas fighter shooting at the drone filming from above.

While some soldiers can be seen running around the kibbutz during the terror attack - which left 1,200 Israelis dead - others were filmed lying on the ground without moving.

Meanwhile, hostage families have told of their agony as their loved ones are still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

Among them is Mandy Damari, a 63-year-old primary school teacher from Surrey. She had her world torn apart on October 7 last year after her daughter Emily, 28, was taken from Kibbutz Kfar Aza by Hamas thugs.

Mandy has spent the last year lobbying Israeli and British politicians for the safe return of her daughter, the only British hostage to remain in Hamas' hands.

In a short snippet shared with media outlets, Mandy said: 'I would like to feel that the British public were behind her and the British government are behind her and they were saying there was a British hostage held captive in the terror tunnels by Hamas in Gaza.

'I want them to know that she's there and to advocate for her release unconditionally and immediately.

'She's a young woman who knows what's happening to her. If there's a way to put her on social media, see her out there, remind people that she's there, make sure she's not forgotten.

'She's my daughter, I love her to the moon and back. There's no way I'm giving up on her. That's my job now, to get my daughter back alive.'

Hamas terrorists killed some 1,200 people in the October 7 attack and took another 250 hostage. They still hold around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

President Herzog promised: 'I pledge — we will rebuild and restore everything anew, and that rebuilding will not be complete until the hostages return home.'

Among those hostages that have been released since October 7 is little Emily Hand, nine, who was snatched in her pyjamas during a sleepover at her friend's house on October 7 last year and was held hostage for 50 days.

Footage of Emily running into her father's arms before they shared an emotional embrace warmed the hearts of all who watched it.

Her father Thomas said at the time she was 'broken but in one piece' after he had previously said he believed she would be better off dead than kidnapped by Hamas.

It's been a long road to recovery, as upon her return Emily was painfully skinny, with matted filthy hair and she only spoke in a whisper because her thuggish captors had told the schoolgirl they would stab her if she made too much noise.

But Thomas praised her as a 'fighter' and revealed she is now as 'noisy and boisterous as ever' and is 'smiling again'. He vowed to never complain about how loud she is being.

He told The Sun that Emily is 'smiling again' and is back at school with some of her old friends, starting to 'enjoy life'.

He said: 'Emily still gets scared of loud noises and wasn't able to sleep alone for a long time after she came back. She still has nightmares but counselling has helped and things are much better now.'

Ahead of the today's anniversary during which hostages like Emily were taken to Gaza by Hamas, Israel intensified its bombardment of Hamas-ally Lebanon, with huge blasts ripping through its capital Beirut in another night of airstrikes.

The latest onslaught hit Beirut's southern suburbs late on Sunday, with large fireballs seen from miles away and loud booms ringing out over the darkened skyline.

The assault signified the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah last month.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported more than 30 strikes overnight into Sunday, while Israel's military said about 130 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.

'It was very difficult. All of us in Beirut could hear everything,' resident Haytham Al-Darazi said. Another resident, Maxime Jawad, called it 'a night of terror.'

One strike on Sunday killed three sisters and their aunt in the coastal village of Jiyyeh. 'This is a civilian home, and the biggest evidence is those martyred are four women,' said a neighbor, Ali Al Hajj.

The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for residents of southern Beirut late on Sunday in advance of further strikes.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli soldiers hit Hezbollah's underground infrastructure, weapons caches and observation posts in ground raids, Israel's military said.

On Sunday night, it declared three more areas on its northern border as closed military zones in addition to more than five closed last week as military staging areas.

An Israeli strike on a building in the central mountain town of Kayfoun killed six people and wounded 13, Lebanon's health ministry said. A strike in the nearby town Qmatiye killed six more, including three children, and wounded 11, it said.

The renewed strikes on Beirut came just a day after Israel's heaviest bombardment of the southern suburbs known as the Dahiyeh since it escalated its air campaign on September 23. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties.

Israel confirmed the strikes on Beirut and says it targets Hezbollah. The militant group, the strongest armed force in Lebanon, has called its months of firing rockets into Israel a show of support for the Palestinians.

Last night, Hezbollah fired a rocket salvo at the port city of Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, with shrapnel injuring several people.

Israel's military said at least five projectiles were identified coming from Lebanon and 'fallen projectiles' were found in the area, though it was not immediately clear whether these pieces of shrapnel were from rockets or interceptors.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it treated 10 people, most of them hurt by shrapnel.

Hezbollah said it had targeted an Israeli military base with the rocket salvo, the third attack on a military position in the area in one day.

Hezbollah fighters launched 'a salvo of Fadi 1 rockets at the Carmel base south of Haifa,' late Sunday the group said in a statement, having earlier reported two attacks on another base also south of Haifa.

The group dedicated the attack to its leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs last month.

Israel and Hezbollah have been bitter enemies for decades, with each vowing to destroy the other. The armed group was built up by Iran to counter Israel.

When Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah took credit for pushing them out. Hezbollah continues to oppose Israel's presence in disputed border areas, and has carried out deadly attacks on Israeli and US forces in Lebanon.

The armed group stepped up its rocket attacks on Israel on October 8, the day after Hamas launched its bloody invasion of Israel from Gaza, triggering the war there.

Hezbollah has vowed to continue firing rockets into Israel until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, where the Hamas-run health ministry says more than 42,000 people have been killed so far.

The sides have been trading fire on a near daily basis since then, with Hezbollah launching rockets and drones and Israel mounting air and artillery strikes.

For its part, Israel says it will not tolerate constant attacks on its territory, arguing that it must dismantle Hezbollah if it wants to safely return thousands of evacuated citizens - who fled since October 7 - to their homes in the north.

Hezbollah is a powerful part of the 'Axis of Resistance', an alliance of Iran-backed groups across the Middle East that also includes Hamas.

Iran launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on Tuesday last week, firing more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel. Alarms sounded across Israel and explosions could be heard in Jerusalem and the Jordan River valley.

Israelis piled into bomb shelters and reporters on state television lay flat on the ground during live broadcasts.

Iran's forces used hypersonic Fattah missiles for the first time, and 90 per cent of its missiles successfully hit their targets in Israel, the Revolutionary Guards said.

Central Israel received 'a small number' of hits and there were other strikes in southern Israel, he said. The Israeli military published video of a school in the central city of Gadera that was heavily damaged by an Iranian missile.

No injuries were reported in Israel, but one man was killed in the occupied West Bank, authorities there said.

US Navy warships fired about a dozen interceptors against Iranian missiles headed toward Israel, the Pentagon said.

US President Joe Biden expressed full American support for Israel and described Iran's attack as 'ineffective.'

He said there was an active discussion about how Israel would respond, and he would confer with Netanyahu.

Iran's foreign ministry said its operation was defensive and only directed at Israeli military and security facilities. Earlier, Iran's state news agency said Tehran targeted three Israeli military bases.

Any Israeli response would be met with 'vast destruction' of Israeli infrastructure, Iran's General Staff of the Armed Forces said in a statement carried by state media, also promising to target regional assets of any Israeli ally that got involved.

Iran's armed forces said direct intervention by Israel's supporters against Tehran would provoke a 'strong attack' from Iran on their 'bases and interests' in the region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday morning warned Iran the attack would not go unpunished.

'Although we have not yet completed the removal of the threat, we have clearly changed the course of the war and shifted the balance of the war. And we are not done yet,' he said.

'Iran has twice launched hundreds of missiles into our territory, in one of the largest ballistic missile attacks in history.

'No country in the world would accept such an attack on its cities and citizens, and nor will Israel.

'Israel has the duty and the right to defend itself and respond to these attacks, and it will do so.'

Iran's attack has stoked fears that the Middle East could be on the brink of an all-out war, with Israel already fighting on several fronts in Gaza and Lebanon.

Netanyahu told troops Israel 'will win' as it battles militants in both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and prepares to strike Iran.

IDF chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi declared on Sunday that Hamas' military has been 'defeated' in a statement to his troops.

He said: 'A year has passed, and we have defeated the military wing of Hamas [...]. We have dealt a severe blow to Hezbollah, which has lost all of its senior leadership.'

'We are not stopping – we fight, debrief, learn, and improve,' he added, as troops in northern Gaza operated against what the IDF said were Hamas attempts to rebuild.

'We are taking an offensive, tactical, and proactive approach on all fronts, adapting our defensive strategies on all borders, and understanding that the IDF must be a greater army that takes good care of its people.

'We are destroying our enemies' capabilities, and we will ensure that these capabilities are not rebuilt, so that October 7th is never repeated.'

Ahead of the October 7 anniversary, IDF spokesperson Nadav Shoshani wrote on X last night: 'As you go to sleep tonight, remember: A year ago tonight, 1,200+ people went to sleep after a holiday meal or left their house on their way to a party, not knowing that their lives would end the next day.

'251 people spent their night in peace not knowing that they would be taken hostage by terrorists the next day. This night was the last night before our world changed forever.'

In the UK, there has been a surge in anti-semitic hate crimes in London , with incidents skyrocketing four fold since the October 7 massacre, according to new data.

This record increase of anti-semitic crimes is still three times more than the previous high in 2020-2021, when the last war raged in Gaza , the Telegraph reports.

They have now overtaken the number of Islamophobic incidents for the first time, with 2,170 anti-semitic cases recorded by Met Police in the 11 months since October 7 compared to 1,568 Islamophobic hate crimes in the same period.

Islamophobic hate crimes have also nearly doubled since October 7, making it the highest number of incidents since 2016-2017 when incidents surged following the London Bridge terror attack.

Assistant Met Police Commissioner Matt Twist called this record increase in hate crimes of both anti-semitic and Islamophobic nature 'really concerning'.

'For the past year we have had a dedicated policing operation tackling hate crime in communities, responding to significant protest, countering extremism and terrorism, and working to provide reassurance particularly in parts of London with significant Jewish and Muslim populations,' he said in a statement.

The majority of anti-semitic hate crimes were reported in Barnet, Hackney, Camden, and Haringey - where the UK's largest Jewish communities live - as well as Westminster.

The number of anti-semitic hate crimes reported to Met Police corresponded to nearly one per every 1,000 Jews of the 270,000 that live in London, making it eight times higher than the rate per 1,000 Muslims living in London.

AC Twist said: 'As the situation in the Middle East becomes less certain once again, we know that fears and tensions will rise here at home too.'

In Brighton, a man caused outrage last night after he was filmed tearing down an October 7 memorial.

Footage shows the man, dressed in beige trousers and a shirt with a black cap, tossing flowers, throwing the plaque, a football and teddy bears left in Hove, Brighton , as a tribute to those who tragically lost their lives.

The woman filming can be heard gasping and asking 'what the f**k...why' quietly.

Loud bangs can be heard in the atrocious footage as he continued to mess up the mementos which had been painstakingly placed there.

He was seen picking up a planter and throwing it so that all of the soil fell out.

As he picked up a photo of a person and looked as if he was going to rip it up, another man shouted 'oi' at him. They both pointed at the ruined memorial as the second man seemed to tell him off.

The passerby then positioned himself between the man and the tributes before pointing and telling him to go. 'Go, go, get back, f**k off, go on' he said, walking after the first man before turning back.

The shocking footage was posted on X yesterday with the caption: 'Breaking: A memorial honouring the victims murdered on October 7, 2023, in Israel by Hamas in Brighton, UK was completely destroyed by this man.

'Even dead Jews can not be left alone in peace.'