Skyscrapers, tourism and an omnipresent militia: Inside Hezbollah's Beirut home

For an outsider, Haret Hreik is an unlikely place to be the stronghold of a militant outfit. High-end hotels, foreign-themed restaurants and cafes, spa centres, and expensive cars dotting the clean, wide streets don't give away that this southern Beirut neighbourhood is home to Israel's most powerful enemy militia, Hezbollah in Lebanon.

This is the same area where Israel’s Air Force killed Hezbollah co-founder and chief Hassan Nasarallah on September 27. The killing has escalated risks of a regional war between Israel and Iran-supported militias.

India Today has reviewed Google Street View and several video vlogs, recent and old, of Haret Hreik to pinpoint locations associated with Hezbollah and to get a sense of the area.

Haret Hreik is situated nearly 8 km from central Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon—a former French colony popular among tourists for its beautiful beaches and architecture.

The outer edges of Haret Hreik don't look much different from other neighbourhoods in Beirut. But as you move deeper, you would be met with hoardings of gun-wielding men in camouflage dress with Arabic texts praising how valiantly they served the "Resistance."

Bigger are posters and billboards of a long-bearded man sporting a black turban—that's Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah Secretary General who has vowed to oppose Israel. These posters and banners are everywhere—on restaurants and cafes, electricity poles, residences, designated publicity spaces, and hanging in the middle of the road.

In Haret Hreik, tourists are unlikely to find any official offices of Hezbollah but are most welcome to take a stroll on the "Square of Resistance Martyrs" and drive on Hadi Hassan Nasrallah Street.

Israel and Western security officials say Haret Hreik in Shia-dominated Dahieh, situated a distance of nearly 4.5 km from the Beirut airport, has been home to Hezbollah's command and control centre for decades.

Israel has carried out attacks in this area before.

Founded in 1985, Hezbollah has been described as a "state within a state" in Lebanon. Its armed forces are considered stronger and better equipped than Lebanon's official forces. It has representatives in parliament and has fought in foreign lands, including in Syria.

Since early October 2023, Hezbollah has been carrying out low-intensity rocket attacks in northern Israel in support of Palestinians in Gaza, displacing thousands of civilians. Israel has responded in kind, until the first week of this month.

On September 17, Israel wounded thousands of Hezbollah men by remotely exploding pager communication devices. A day later, similar blasts in satellite phones and other electronic devices across Lebanon killed hundreds of people. That followed more lethal airstrikes in different parts of Lebanon.

The killing of Nasarallah has been the pivotal event of the Israeli efforts to cripple Hezbollah into submission. The outfit, however, has vowed to fight on. On the contrary, concerns are growing that the killing could force Hezbollah and its patron Iran to retaliate and that could engulf the entire region into a full-blown regional war.