Hamas Israel Conflict….Day 364….Oct. 7 Hamas attack Anniversary Tomorrow….

Early on Sunday, the Israeli military issued a map labeling nearly all of northern Gaza an evacuation zone, saying this was in preparation for “a new phase” in the war. That came hours after Israeli warplanes attacked Jabaliya, in the northern part of the enclave. The Israeli military said it had surrounded an area where it had identified Hamas fighters and “efforts by Hamas to rebuild its operational capabilities.”

The military also said that it had struck a mosque and a school-turned-shelter in the central Gaza city of Deir al Balah overnight. It described the two locations as Hamas “command and control centers” nestled among civilians, without providing evidence of its claims. The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said 26 Palestinians had been killed and dozens more were wounded.

In recent weeks, Israel has been simultaneously intensifying attacks against Hamas’s allies, like Hezbollah in Lebanon….

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Israel has been systematically targeting the leaders of Hezbollah and Iran’s other regional proxies. On Saturday, it said it had killed two Hamas commanders in Lebanon as it kept up its fight against the militant group in Gaza.

The escalating fighting has raised fears of all-out war between Israel and Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas. Last week Iran launched a barrage of missiles at Israel in retaliation for assassinations — and Israel has vowed to respond.

Here is what else to know:

• Weapons for Israel: President Emmanuel Macron of France said on Saturday that shipments of weapons to Israel that could be used in Gaza should be halted. He also called for an “immediate and lasting” cease-fire in Lebanon.

• Deadly attack: A woman died and five more people were taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds after an attack near the central bus station in the southern Israeli city of Be’er Sheva, according to Israel’s ambulance service, Magen David Adom. The police described the incident as a terrorist attack and said the assailant had been “neutralized.”

• Israel’s preparation: Lessons learned from a 2006 invasion of Lebanon have guided Israel in its current one. Security experts say a political deal is needed to restore calm.

• Iranian commander: Members of the Iranian news media are asking: Where is Brig. Gen. Esmail Ghaani, the country’s top general and the commander in chief of its elite Quds Forces? The concerns about General Ghaani followed reports in some Israeli and Arab news media on Saturday that he was either killed or injured in one of Israel’s recent attacks on Beirut….

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The anniversay of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel is tomorrow….

There ARE still hostages being held….

Some of them are probably not alive anymore….

And after the Israeli military said it had intercepted two surface-to-surface missiles fired from Lebanon on Sunday morning, some Israelis were questioning the wisdom of allowing any sizable public gatherings. The missiles set off sirens in Israeli towns up to 50 miles south of the Lebanese border and showed that Hezbollah could still pose a significant threat despite Israel’s recent blows to its leadership and arsenal.

Given the chaos and the war that followed the Oct. 7 assault, Israel has not yet held a national day of mourning for the 1,200 people who were killed in the cross-border attacks, most of them civilians, according to the Israeli authorities. In Gaza, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent fighting, many of them civilians, according to local health officials.

Many Israelis are approaching the anniversary with a mix of dread, fear, and anger at the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who has refused to take personal responsibility for the military and policy failures that contributed to the disaster of Oct. 7….

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Will this push into Lebanon after Hezbollah be more successful then the last failure?

“There was a certain degree of trauma from the results of the war,” said Carmit Valensi, an Israeli expert on Hezbollah who served in the military’s intelligence directorate.

Nearly 20 years later, Israel has mounted another assault against Hezbollah in Lebanon. This time, a string of successes — attacks that have killed Hezbollah’s leaders, crippled its communication networks and targeted its weapons caches — were a direct result of Israel’s investments in preparing for a future battle with Hezbollah after that foundering performance in 2006, Israeli security experts said.

But as Israeli forces push deeper into Lebanon by land, they will be vulnerable to greater risks, including sophisticated weapons used by Hezbollah. And if the Israeli government fails to develop a clear exit strategy, as it has struggled to do in Gaza, the military could end up fighting a protracted war that stretches its resources to the limit.

Delivering blow after blow to Hezbollah has helped restore Israel’s reputation as a powerful force in the Middle East, but it also has underscored how the country was more ready for war with Hezbollah on its northern border than it was for an incursion by Hamas, which spearheaded the Oct. 7 attacks in the south.

“Hezbollah is 10 times more powerful than Hamas,” said Yaakov Amidror, a retired major general who served as Israel’s national security adviser from 2011 to 2013. “But the I.D.F. was 20 times more prepared for Hezbollah than it was for Hamas,” he said, referring to the Israeli military….

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