Just 40 kilometers from the Iranian coast, amid heightened security tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, Haredi journalist Yitzhak Horowitz reached the Omani side of one of the world’s most sensitive shipping routes – and from there set sail into the strait itself.

Horowitz, a correspondent for the Bakehila newspaper and the American Ami magazine, visited the Musandam Peninsula, an Omani enclave overlooking the strait. The area, through which significant quantities of oil and gas are transported alongside civilian and military vessels, is currently under heavy security.

Behind Musandam’s mountainous landscape and deep bays, according to accounts Horowitz heard while there, lies a far more tense reality. Locals said the area, once a popular destination for tourists, has become a place where visitors are carefully scrutinized and soldiers warn against taking photographs near military bases.

In the city of Khasab, the departure point for voyages into the strait, Horowitz found streets almost devoid of people but filled with goats roaming freely. The owner of a local kiosk known as the “Iranian restaurant” told him that some of the goats are smuggled from Iran aboard speedboats.

According to the owner, the smuggling route operates in both directions: Electronic equipment is transported from Dubai to Iran, while livestock and sheep are brought back on the return journey. This continues, he said, even at a time when sailing in the area can become dangerous.

“There were drones from Iran that fell on the mountain,” the restaurant owner said. “And sometimes you see bombs falling on ships, but in the city itself it is quiet.”

After searching the port of Khasab for someone willing to take him out into the strait, Horowitz found a local captain named Younis, who agreed to take him and his companions on the voyage.

During the trip, they noticed large oil tankers anchored near the coast during daylight hours. According to what Horowitz was told in the area, the tankers wait until nightfall before crossing the strait due to fears of attacks and naval mines.

Younis also described an attack he said he had recently witnessed. According to him, a drone struck a tanker sailing under the Panamanian flag, setting the vessel on fire. One sailor was killed and the remaining crew members were rescued. He said it later emerged that the vessel was an Iranian tanker smuggling oil.

Horowitz’s full journey through the Strait of Hormuz, together with the documentation and photographs he captured in the area, is published in the expanded holiday edition of Bakehila.

המסעenlargeהמסעצילום: בקהילההעיתוןenlargeהעיתוןצילום: י.ה.