Israeli tanks enter Khiam in deep south Lebanon incursion

Lebanese state media said Tuesday that Israeli tanks entered the outskirts of the village of Khiam, their deepest incursion yet into south Lebanon in a 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 kilometres from the border with Israel.

Hezbollah said it destroyed two tanks using guided missiles and targeted Israeli troops south and southwest of Khiam with rockets and artillery.

Lebanon's National News Agency said Israeli forces carried out a series of air attacks on Khiam later on Tuesday and launched a large-scale sweep "using heavy and medium weaponry".

Iran-backed Hezbollah, 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 on September 30.

According to an AFP count based on Lebanese health ministry figures, 1,754 people have been killed nationwide since intensive Israeli strikes on Lebanon began.

Hezbollah claims that Israeli forces are 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.

Israel vows to hit Iran 'very hard'

Israel's military chief vowed on Tuesday to hit Iran "very hard" if it retaliates against Israel for its attacks on the Islamic republic over the weekend.

"If Iran makes the mistake of launching another missile barrage at Israel, we will once again know how to reach Iran... and strike very, very hard" Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said.

Addressing military personnel who took part in the weekend strike, Halevi said that certain targets had been set aside "because we may be required to do this again".

"This event is not over; we are still in the midst of it," he said, according to a statement issued by the military.

On Saturday, Israeli fighter jets carried out pre-dawn air strikes against Iranian military targets and missile production facilities in retaliation for a major ballistic missile attack by Tehran earlier this month.

That attack, which involved around 200 missiles, was itself launched in retaliation for the killing of several Tehran-aligned militant leaders, including Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, and a Revolutionary Guards commander.

Iran confirmed that the Israeli attack had targeted military sites in the capital Tehran and other parts of the country, but said it had caused "limited damage".

In a post on X, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Israel's attack "should neither be exaggerated nor minimised".

Without elaborating, he described the attack as a "miscalculation".

The missile barrage was the second-ever direct attack by Iran on Israel, following a similar barrage in April. Israel reportedly retaliated for that attack the same month.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran was seeking to develop a "stockpile" of nuclear bombs aimed at destroying his country.

"Iran is striving to develop a stockpile of nuclear bombs to destroy us, equipped with long-range missiles, intercontinental missiles that Iran is trying to develop," Netanyahu said.