Israel army says more troops deployed near Gaza ahead of October 7 anniversary

The Israeli military said Sunday it deployed more troops to defend southern communities and areas bordering Gaza, ahead of the anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas.

“The IDF’s [army] Gaza Division has been reinforced with several platoons, with forces stationed to defend both the communities and the border area,” the military said.

“The soldiers are fully equipped to defend the region in coordination with local security forces,” it said in a statement.

Inside Gaza, the military said three divisions were working to “dismantle terrorist infrastructure and degrade Hamas’s capabilities.”

“The Southern Command remains at a heightened state of vigilance and readiness for the coming days,” commanding officer Major General Yaron Finkelman was quoted as saying.

Earlier, the military said its forces had surrounded the area of Jabaliya in central Gaza where Hamas was trying to rebuild its operational capabilities.

On October 7 last year, Hamas militants broke through the border from Gaza into Israel in what would become the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.

At the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, the militants launched their assault by land, air, and sea.

A year later, the confirmed death toll from the attack, including hostages killed in captivity, has reached 1,205 on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants abducted 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still captive in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military has said are dead.

Hours after the attack Israel launched a lightning military offensive on Gaza, which has reduced large swathes of the territory to rubble, and nearly all of the 2.4 million residents have been displaced at least once as a humanitarian crisis worsened.

Israel’s relentless offensive on Gaza has so far killed at least 41,870 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Palestinian territory.

The figures have been found to be reliable by the United Nations.