Lebanon media say Israel tanks enter Khiam outskirts in deep south Lebanon incursion

Lebanese state media said Tuesday that Israeli tanks have rolled into the outskirts of the village of Khiam, their deepest incursion yet into south Lebanon in the ground operation launched last month.

The official National News Agency reported the entry of “a large number of tanks belonging to the Israeli occupation army” into the eastern outskirts of Khiam, some six kilometers (nearly four miles) from the border with Israel.

Hezbollah, for its part, said it targeted Israeli troops south and southwest of Khiam on Tuesday with rocket and artillery fire.

The Iran-backed group, which named deputy chief Naim Qassem as its new leader on Tuesday, has been battling Israeli forces in Lebanese border villages since the ground invasion began late last month.

Hezbollah claims that Israeli forces have yet to assert full control over any village in Lebanon, weeks into the invasion, amid repeated operations to repel Israeli attempts at infiltration.

The large town of Khiam holds symbolic significance.

It was home to a notorious prison run by the South Lebanon Army, an Israeli proxy militia, during Israel’s occupation of south Lebanon.

Israeli troops withdrew from the region in 2000 after 22 years of occupation.