Hezbollah continues to engage invading Zionist forces in fierce clashes across the southern Lebanese border region, as Tel Aviv has expanded its ground operation and brutal campaign of airstrikes in Lebanon.
Zionist forces reached the second line of border villages last week. The troops are currently attempting to advance towards the town of Shamaa, while trying to reenter the town of Khiam after being forced out of it in early November.
“In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted, at 11:15 am on Sunday 17-11-2024, a gathering of Zionist enemy army forces on the southwestern outskirts of the town of Shama, with artillery shells,” Hezbollah said in a statement on the morning of 17 November.
The Lebanese resistance said earlier on Sunday that it targeted “a gathering of Zionist enemy army forces on the southern outskirts of the town of Khiam, with a rocket salvo.”
Zionist artillery shelling struck Khiam and Shamaa on Sunday as the troops attempted to gain ground.
The regime launched its ground operation in southern Lebanon at the very start of October. Hezbollah has inflicted severe losses on the Zionist army since then.
According to its military media page, it has killed over 100 occupation soldiers, wounded over 1,000, and destroyed dozens of tanks and military vehicles. Strict Zionist army censorship continues to cover up the losses.
Up until the recent expansion of the ground operation, the fighting had focused on the first row of towns on the border, which had been under intensive Zionist bombardment since October 2023.
Hebrew news site Ynet reported on 17 November that the occupation army’s entry into the second line of Lebanese border villages could result in it getting stuck “in the Lebanese mud.” This is something Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi “is afraid to tell the public.”
“The ground operation in southern Lebanon is being conducted more under shadows and blurring of information on the part of the IDF, in order to make it difficult for [Hezbollah], which is far from being disarmed,” the Ynet report added, confirming the censorship.
The regime’s new Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said last week during a meeting with Halevi at the Northern Command that “disarming” Hezbollah is among the aims of the war, drawing a surprised look from the chief of staff.
Until Katz’ statement, the war goals did not include any such objective. the regime has so far failed to achieve its stated goals for Lebanon, which include pushing Hezbollah from the border, establishing a buffer zone in south Lebanon, and returning the hundreds of thousands of evacuated settlers to their settlements.
Retired Zionist military colonel and national security expert Kobi Marom told Hebrew news outlet Channel 12 on 1 November that the occupation is incapable of dismantling or defeating Hezbollah, adding that the losses inflicted on the group by the regime are not as significant as they are made out to be.
Negotiations for a ceasefire in Lebanon are currently being mediated by Hezbollah’s ally, the leader of the Amal Movement and Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri, and Washington.
Tel Aviv had previously demanded that any ceasefire must include freedom of military action on Lebanon’s territory or in its airspace.
Berri told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper on 15 November that US officials involved in the talks know this is unacceptable and not open for discussion.
“There can be no undermining of our sovereignty,” he stressed. He said UN Resolution 1701 – the agreement drafted at the end of the 2006 war – does not require a special international committee to be implemented.
He added that the negotiations are “positive,” and that Lebanon will issue a formal response “very soon.”