Al Jazeera November 24, 2024
Heavy fighting ongoing for strategic Lebanese town

Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops are engaged in running gun battles in the southern Lebanon town of Khiam.
The National News Agency (NNA) reports intense air and artillery bombardment of Khiam, 6km (4 miles) from the border.

Israel is “attempting to control the town” as it’s “a strategic gateway for a rapid ground incursion”, the NNA said.
Israeli troops dynamited houses and are “trying to surround [Khiam] from all sides using extensive air and ground cover”.

Over the past two days, Hezbollah said its fighters attacked Israeli soldiers about 20 times in and around the large town.
Israeli tanks have been operating east of Khiam for more than three weeks.

Khiam has symbolic significance.
It was the site of a notorious prison run by the South Lebanon Army, an Israeli proxy militia, during its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon. Israeli forces withdrew from the region in 2000

The NNA said that, on the south coast, “the areas of al-Bayyaada and Wadi Hamool are witnessing violent clashes”.