Hezbollah clashes with Israeli forces attempting advance toward Khiam

Clashes between Hezbollah and invading Israeli forces have broken out around the town of Khiam, which has emerged as the focal point of the offensive Israel launched against Lebanon at the beginning of the month, according to residents and local officials in the south who spoke to Mada Masr.

A local official from Kfarchouba, which lies to the northeast of Khiam, said that villagers who have had to remain in the area despite the impending Israeli invasion heard intense clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters starting approximately 12:30 am until 4 am in Khiam on Tuesday, including gunfire exchange, artillery strikes and helicopter activity.

The official said Khiam is an important strategic site since its location links the eastern sector of southern Lebanon, around Hasbaya, with the western areas of Houla, Mays al-Jabal, and surrounding villages. If Israeli forces were to take control of Khiam, the source said, it would effectively divide the area and separate these regions, potentially making it easier to advance further into the rest of southern Lebanon. The town was also the site of a several-day battle at the conclusion of Israel’s 2024 invasion.

Hezbollah said Tuesday morning that it had “repelled an advance attempt by enemy forces on the southern outskirts of Khiam, in the vicinity of the detention center,” adding that Israeli forces were unable to advance further. The group also pointed to an attempted incursion on the same night near the town of Houla, located southwest of Khiam. 

An eyewitness from the village of Blida, which lies a few kilometers further west, confirmed that Israeli troops have focused their attacks on the border villages of Odaisseh, Rab al-Thalathine and Taybeh, the first line of residential areas in the eastern sector. Khiam lies beyond this first line, around six kilometers deep into the border.

Hezbollah also said it had launched responding machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire to repel attempted incursions in the nearby village of Odaisseh in recent days. 

The same eyewitness from Blida said that Israeli forces have not attempted incursion further west, in the Mays al-Jabal–Blida area.

The Kfarchouba official said that clashes similar to those on Tuesday night have occurred repeatedly over the past three to four nights, with residents saying that Israeli forces have so far been unable to enter the town of Khiam.

Residents of Kfarchouba also said that Israeli forces have twice entered the outskirts of their village through an area called Azra’el. Villagers said they only became aware of the presence of Israeli troops and vehicles when enemy bombs were fired toward a nearby hill in the Souaneh area as the forces withdrew.

The Kfarchouba official said that return fire has so far deterred the attempted incursions, adding that there were no visible signs of military installations in the area. 

"We see Khiam like a flat plate,” he said, describing the view of the town from the elevated position at Kfarchouba. “Once the Israelis fire in the middle of the village, the resistance immediately fires back and no one knows where they're emerging from."

The official noted that the Lebanese military has completely withdrawn from the area, leaving residents unprotected. 

The military began its withdrawal from areas south of the Litani River as soon as Israel announced it would launch an offensive on the country. 

Alongside the incursion at the border, which began March 3, Israel has launched air strikes across the south, extending to crowded residential areas in Sur and Saida. The invading military has recently ordered residents who remained in the border village of Alma al-Chaab to evacuate, adding to the sweeping evacuation orders Israel has issued to all residents  in areas south of the Litani River. 

Ostensibly targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, Israel has also issued unprecedented evacuation orders for the entirety of southern Beirut. 

Its bombing campaigns have targeted sites across Dahiyeh on a daily basis.

The attacks have killed 486 people and injured 1,313, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry’s disaster risk management unit, which also said that over 600,000 people have been displaced from their homes.