Netanyahu interrupted by screaming Oct 7 victims’ families

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, was screamed at by bereaved families as he spoke at a memorial ceremony for the Oct 7 massacre.
Mr Netanyahu stood motionless and silent at the lectern as audience members shouted, disrupting his speech for more than a minute during a live broadcast.
Relatives of some of the victims cried out “Shame on you!”, while one of repeatedly cried: “My father was killed.”
They were later removed from the memorial event that marked the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on southern Israel last year, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped.
It comes after an Israeli man died and more than 30 people were taken to hospital, with some in a serious condition, after a truck rammed a crowd of people getting off a bus, in what police believe was a terror attack.
The attack happened in Glilot, north of Tel Aviv, an area that is home to the Mossad headquarters as well as several intelligence units of the Israeli Defence Forces.
Armed civilians reportedly shot and killed the truck driver.
Many Israelis blame Mr Netanyahu for the failures that led to Hamas’s attack and hold him responsible for not yet bringing home the remaining hostages.
At the memorial ceremony in Jerusalem, which was attended by Israel’s top political and security officials and where wreaths were laid, Mr Netanyahu pointed to Israel’s “success” in what he called “precise and powerful” strikes against Iran.
“We kept our promise. The air force attacked Iran and hit Iran’s defence capabilities and missile production,” Mr Netanyahu said.
It comes as David Barnea, Israel’s spy chief, was expected to head to Doha, Qatar, on Sunday for talks aimed at reopening negotiations towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal, the first of their kind since August.
Families of the hostages along with several Western leaders have called on the Israeli government to broker an agreement this week following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week.
Israeli and US officials believe Sinwar had been a key obstacle to a deal allowing for the release of the 101 hostages, 60 of whom are thought to be alive.
Critics in Israel have also accused Mr Netanyahu of obstructing mediation for a truce and hostage-release deal.
In a separate speech at the memorial, Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, warned that freeing the hostages will be a difficult process.
“Not all objectives can be achieved through military operations alone. To realise our moral duty to bring our hostages home, we will have to make painful concessions,” he said.
Today’s blog is now closed. Key events today included:
More than 40 people were reported to have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on northern Gaza, as UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked by harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction”
 
UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked by harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction” in north Gaza, where the Israeli military is carrying out an intense siege.
“The Secretary-General is shocked by the harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction in the north, with civilians trapped under rubble, the sick and wounded going without life-saving health care, and families lacking food and shelter,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Sunday.
Palestinian health authorities said 45 people had been killed on Sunday, mostly in the north of the strip, including several who were killed in strikes on a UN-run school in al-Shati refugee camp where displaced people were said to be sheltering.
Israel says the bombardment of north Gaza is aimed at preventing terror group Hamas from regrouping. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says that 800 people have so far been killed during the three-week offensive.
Dujarric added that “Repeated efforts to deliver humanitarian supplies essential to survive – food, medicine and shelter – continue to be denied by the Israeli authorities, with few exceptions, putting countless lives in peril.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris said on Sunday she was not concerned about talks between former President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and reiterated her positions on the conflict in the Middle East.
Trump says he has been speaking with Netanyahu and even welcomed him to his home in Mar-a-Lago in July.
Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that Trump had signalled his support for the Israeli government in a recent conversation and told Netanyahu: “Do what you have to do.”
Asked if she was worried that talks between Trump and Netanyahu could undermine what the current US government is trying to achieve, Harris replied “No.”
She will face Trump in what is expected to be a tight US presidential election on Nov. 5.
A group of Western finance ministers, including British Chancellor Rachel Reeves and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, have written to Benjamin Netanyahu over fears that their Israeli counterpart could be about to cut off Palestinian banks and implode the economy of the West Bank.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has until Oct. 31 to approve an extension of the financial correspondence between banks in Israel and the West Bank but there are fears that he might fail to do so.
In the letter, obtained by Axios, the officials write that such a move “endangers Israel’s security and threatens to further destabilize the entire region in an already perilous moment”.
Far-right politician Smotrich has demanded that Palestinian banks put additional measures in place to prevent the illicit funding of terrorism. Western governments have been working to support those demands and the Biden administration told Israel last week that, in its assessment, the conditions had been met.
In the letter, the finance ministers from the UK, US, Canada, France, Japan, the European Commission, the Netherlands and Australia ask Netanyahu to extend the correspondent banking relationship by at least a year.
Israel’s Security Cabinet is meeting this evening and is likely to discuss the issue.
Read the full letter here: https://t.co/5EDf1wcCEp pic.twitter.com/uhrreBmJHd
Israel’s security agency Shin Bet is continuing to investigate the catastrophic security failures that led to 1,200 people being killed and 250 taken hostage on Oct. 7 last year.
“We are in the middle of a deep, penetrating investigation that will leave no stone unturned,” the agency’s chief Ronen Bar said during a memorial service in Jerusalem on Sunday.
“We are learning the reasons for the failure and dealing with its deepest layers to allow us to minimise the chances for such failures in the future.”
Five Israeli reservists were killed and 14 injured while fighting Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon last night, according to the IDF.
The five soldiers who lost their lives were named as:
The troops were serving with the Alon Brigade’s 8207th Battalion, and Goldberg was the battalion’s rabbi.
Three Hezbollah operatives were also killed in the exchange of fire.
One man has died and dozens are in hospital after a truck rammed into a crowd of people disembarking from a bus in Israel this morning, in what police believe was a terror attack.
More than 30 people were taken to hospital, with six believed to be in a serious condition, including the man who later succumbed to his injuries.
The attack happened in Glilot, north of Tel Aviv, an area that is home to the Mossad headquarters as well as several intelligence units of the Israeli Defence Forces.
However, reports from local media suggest that many of the injured were senior citizens who were on their way to visit a museum.
Armed civilians reportedly shot and killed the truck driver as emergency services rushed to the scene, treating the wounded and freeing others who were trapped under the wreckage.
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Sunday, a day after it declared several areas in the region to be a “legitimate target” due to the presence of Israeli troops.
Several people, including a child, were injured.
Efforts to secure a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war are resuming in Qatar today.
The directors of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency will meet with Qatar’s prime minister, an official briefed on the talks told Reuters news agency.
The negotiations will seek a short-term ceasefire and the release of some hostages being held by Hamas in exchange for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners, the official said.
The talks aim to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a halt in fighting for less than a month in the hope it would lead to a more permanent ceasefire.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been leading negotiations to bring an end to the war, which broke out after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was heckled by bereaved families as he spoke at a memorial ceremony for the civilian victims of the October 7 massacre today.
Netanyahu stood motionless at a lectern during the ceremony in Jerusalem as audience members shouted, interrupting him for more than a minute, according to a live broadcast of the speech.
Hecklers, including relatives of some of the victims, cried out “Shame on you!” before being removed from the event.
On Friday, Israeli airstrikes killed Ahmad Jaafar Matouq, the Hezbollah commander in charge of the Lebanese border village of Bint Jbeil, according to the IDF – adding that on Saturday, Matouq’s brand new replacement was killed in a separate strike.
Residents of several villages in south Lebanon have been told to leave immediately as the Israeli military prepares to strike Hezbollah targets there.
Residents of more than a dozen villages were told to move “north of the Awali River”.
Comments by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following Israel’s strike on Iran yesterday capture the dilemma facing the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader and suggest the country may consider a path to de-escalation.
Khamenei has said it is up to Iranian officials to decide how to respond to Saturday’s early morning strikes rather than issuing a warning of imminent retaliation.While he still criticised what he described as “the evil committed by the Zionist regime”, handing the decision of how to respond to the military marks a departure from previous warnings of a “painful” retaliation.After Iran fired a barrage of 180 missiles at Israel earlier this month, Khamenei tweeted an illustration of a large underground weapons cache and said “Victory comes from Allah and it is close”.He added in broken Hebrew that the “blows of the uprising front will become stronger and more painful on the worn and rotting body of the Zionist regime.”In a rare public sermon three weeks ago he said that “every strike launched by any group against Israel is a service to the region and to all humanity” and that Iran will not  “procrastinate nor act hastily to carry out its duty”.
But Khamenei has apparently decided to sit on the fence for now while the military weighs up its options: to not respond and look weak or to hit back knowing that Israel will respond more aggressively, having already severely harmed Iran’s defences.
This morning, he said that Israel had exaggerated the success of the operation but that it was also important not to downplay its significance.”Our officials must determine and understand clearly what is in the best interest of this country and this nation and act accordingly. [Israel] must realise who the Iranian people are, what the youth of Iran are like, and that this spirit, this motivation, this courage, and this readiness that exist in Iran today themselves create security. This needs to be preserved.”
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant briefed US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin on the success of Israel’s strikes on Iran and discussed “strategic opportunities” that may have arisen, Gallant’s office said on Sunday.
“Gallant discussed initial assessments regarding the success of the strikes against missile manufacturing facilities, surface-to-air missile arrays and Iranian aerial capabilities,” it said.
“Minister Gallant also discussed the strategic opportunities that have risen as a result of operational achievements, in both the northern and southern arenas,” the statement said, referring to fighting in Lebanon and Gaza.
Israeli media celebrated yesterday’s attack on Iran – but some outlets are questioning whether the country should have gone further, The Telegraph’s Neil Johnston reports from Tel Aviv.
Broadsheet Yedioth Ahronoth showed a picture of two Israeli pilots holding hands as they exited the cockpit of their fighter jet alongside the headline: “The long arm hit Iran”.
It said Israel had shown it was “not afraid” to strike Iran and trailed a quote from a resident of Tehran saying: “We are used to seeing it in Lebanon. Suddenly it’s over our heads.”
The Times of Israel declared that the IDF had “crippled” Iran’s missile production and in an analysis said the attack was “highly successful” and “leaves Iran more vulnerable than ever”.
Haaretz, the left wing newspaper, said it was a “show of long-range strike capability” and that Israel “can afford to show restraint”.However The Jerusalem Post questioned whether Israel had thrown away a “golden ticket opportunity to target Iran’s nuclear programme”.It said there was “no question” that Israel’s attack on Iran was “operationally successful” but that it may have missed an opportunity to set back the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme. It described US pressure not to attack Iran’s nuclear programme as “extraordinary” and said that Israel missed a chance “to address the nuclear threat head on, so as not to have to rely on mere ‘hope’”.
Israel’s attack on Iran yesterday damaged facilities at a secretive military base that experts have previously linked to Tehran’s one-time nuclear weapons programme, according to satellite photos analysed by the Associated Press. 
The images also show damage at another base tied to Iran’s ballistic missile programme.
Some of the buildings damaged are located in Iran’s Parchin military base, where the International Atomic Energy Agency suspects Iran in the past conducted tests of high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon. Iran has long insisted that its nuclear programme is peaceful, though the IAEA and Western intelligence agencies say Tehran had an active weapons programme up until 2003.
The other damage could be seen at the nearby Khojir military base, which analysts believe hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites.
Iran’s military has not acknowledged damage at either Khojir or Parchin, though it has said that the assault killed four Iranian soldiers working in the country’s air defense systems.
It remains unclear how many sites in total were targeted in the Israeli attack.
Israel is today marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year. An official memorial is taking place in Jerusalem, with the country’s top political and security officials in attendance.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the country’s air attack on Iran was “precise and powerful” and achieved all its objectives.
“We promised we would respond to the Iranian attack and on Saturday we struck. The attack in Iran was precise and powerful, achieving all of its objectives,” Netanyahu said. 
Images emerging from the scene show the front of the truck completely crushed and emergency services attending.
Pictures and videos are circulating online claiming to show the aftermath of the suspected attack. Some are too graphic to publish but they show casualties trapped underneath the front of the white truck waiting to be rescued.
Men can be seen with their legs under the bumper of the truck, wriggling as they wait for paramedics to free them.
Videos show paramedics treating the wounded. In one there appears to be panic as first responders crowd around the casualties and shout for assistance.
 
Many of the people injured this morning were senior citizens who had just got off a bus ahead of a visit to a nearby museum when the truck rammed into them, according to Israeli media reports
The number of people taken to hospital following this morning’s suspected attack has now risen to 35, according to figures provided by the Magen David Adom ambulance service.
That includes six people believed to be in a serious condition.
Civilians at the site of the incident reportedly “shot the truck driver and neutralised him”
Of the 24 people injured in today’s suspected terror attack, at least 16 were taken to nearby hospitals, authorities say, with four believed to be in a serious condition.
Officers and ambulances rushed to the scene, where Israeli television channels showed police cordoning off the area as medics helped the injured and a helicopter hovered above.