An Israeli journalist said he entered Lebanon under an assumed identity and made it into Beirut’s southern suburbs, Hezbollah’s nerve center and the area long associated with the late Hassan Nasrallah, describing armed checkpoints, propaganda, and a shrine-like “black tent” where visitors gathered to pray.
Yitzhak Horowitz wrote in the Hebrew weekly magazine B’KeHila that the trip, illegal for most Israelis without special authorization, was a calculated risk that nearly unraveled over what he called “one unnecessary photo.”
Israel continues to classify Lebanon as an “enemy country” for travel purposes, and official Israeli guidance has long warned that entering Lebanon presents serious security risks. Horowitz wrote in B’KeHila that the danger began the moment he faced immigration officials at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri airport, where he said his “heart skipped a beat” even as “the entry was surprisingly easy.”
Horowitz wrote that a logistical mishap at the airport forced him into an unplanned taxi ride, a vulnerability he said felt especially acute in a country that has fought Israel repeatedly and where Hezbollah’s influence is deeply rooted. He described discovering that the driver, “Hassan,” volunteered a comparison to “Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” a detail Horowitz portrayed as an immediate alarm bell as the cab moved through areas he identified as Hezbollah’s sector.
In B’KeHila, Horowitz said the road into the Dahiyeh area was lined with Hezbollah symbols and guarded by armed men, and that his local guide did the talking at a checkpoint. Horowitz recounted the guide presenting him as a foreign supporter, telling the gunmen in Arabic, “He is from Spain. He supports the resistance and came to pray. I know him,” after which the guards examined him and nodded him through.
Israeli journalist visits Hezbollah's bastion in Dahiyeh
Once inside, Horowitz wrote that the atmosphere shifted from neighborhood tension to a mass gathering that blended religious ritual with militant pageantry. He described a large compound with “hundreds if not thousands” of visitors, including groups of Hezbollah fighters carrying rifles, before moving into what he called a tall, black tent carpeted in red “like a mosque,” with lines from Nasrallah’s speeches hung along the walls and a white marble marker behind a decorative iron barrier.
Horowitz wrote in his article that the trip’s most dangerous moment came when he asked to take a photo that his guide considered a catastrophic mistake. The guide, Horowitz reported, scolded him afterward, saying it was “good no one understood English,” and warning that if the request had been understood, locals could interpret it as espionage.
The account, Horowitz wrote, unfolded against the backdrop of Hezbollah’s recent history and Lebanon’s overlapping crises, including the lingering trauma of the Beirut port blast and the group’s internal mythology of “resistance.”
He wrote about his visit to the devastated port area, quoting a local who blamed Hezbollah for the responsibility. He also recounted spotting a badly injured man whom his guide identified as a “resistance” figure hurt in a communications-device attack.
The B’KeHila dispatch also landed as Israel and Lebanon remained in a tense standoff over Hezbollah’s arms and presence in the country’s south, with renewed international focus on enforcement mechanisms and deadlines connected to post-war arrangements.