In Lebanon’s Hezbollah heartland, portraits of Iranian leaders loom over the tangle of Beirut streets.
There’s a reason Dahiyeh, a suburb south of Beirut’s downtown district, is often referred to as Little Tehran.
Pictures of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and General Qasem Soleimani, a commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, killed by an American drone strike in 2020, stare out from posters and banners.
Here, death dominates life.
Farewells to fighters killed in Lebanon's bitter conflicts are public spectacles. The yellow flag of Hezbollah — "The Party of God" — is draped over coffins, like that of Samir Eid Qabbani, once known as "Abu Samra".
The veteran fighter and father of nine, killed in a gunfight with a rival militia, is being given the funeral of a martyr.
Chests were beaten as the procession moved through the city.
There have been many more funerals like these in recent months.
Over 300 Hezbollah men of fighting age have been killed near the border with Israel since October 7 last year.
The exchange of rockets between the sides is nothing new, but it's now a near-daily occurrence.
As casualties mount from Israel's conflict in Gaza, Iran has activated its proxies — the Houthis in Yemen across the Red Sea, and on Israel's northern border, Hezbollah.
Tensions have heightened even further in the past 24 hours, after Israel's pre-emptive strikes that have left at least one person in Lebanon dead, and Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets and drones.
Hezbollah said it struck military bases in what it described as the "first phase" of its attack. Israel said it hit thousands of rocket launchers across Lebanon's border.
This, in a region already teetering on the brink of all-out war.
Hezbollah — branded a terrorist organisation in the West — rarely allows media access to its territories.
ABC's Four Corners was granted entry to its heartland and the villages where the group was born.
As the threat of a larger regional war edges closer, this will be the new front line.
Inside the heartland
Hezbollah is a political party, but it also has a military more powerful than the country's national army.
It controls large swathes of Lebanon in the north and south, and suburbs in Beirut.
And it claims to have 100,000 fighters, although independent analysts put that number closer to 45,000.
[map]Hezbollah's stated objective is to drive Israeli forces from disputed areas on Lebanon's borders.
It also provides social security, education, healthcare and has 13 members of parliament in elected seats.
What's more, it has fought in two wars against Israel.
The first resulted in the group succeeding in ending Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, boosting their popularity as a national resistance movement.
They fought again in 2006.
Its reach has been expanding, too.
Where it once felt impossible to pass Israel's Iron Dome defence system, earlier this month footage from Hezbollah's surveillance drones — designed by Iran — has caused alarm in Israel.
Vision was released of a drone flying over an Israeli naval base undetected.
The Israeli air force stated it had seen the drone but decided not to intercept it as it had "no offensive capabilities".
The drone also passed over sensitive military and suburban areas.
Growing influence of Tehran
Drone test flights have been made from the mountains that surround the Beka'a Valley.
The valley holds significance to the group — it is Hezbollah's birthplace.
Tit-for-tat Israeli drone attacks here are increasing as the southern neighbours try to kill Hezbollah commanders.
At Hermel, in Beka'a's north, Hezbollah politician Ihab Hamadeh told Four Corners that the drone footage proved that if the group could film sensitive sites, they could also hit them.
"There isn't a square metre of the occupied lands that's not within our reach, within the reach of our missiles," Hamadeh said.
"Believe me, Israel does not understand even 20 per cent of our capability to fight.
"Whoever can take pictures of the Iron Dome, can also target it … the question is not, who has the weapons. We know that we are in the right."
The politician said despite the show of strength, the group was not a terrorist outfit.
"Who did we assault? Who did we hurt?" he said.
"Out of all the countries and peoples of the world, where did Hezbollah ever attack anyone? And when? We have high values."
In reality, Hezbollah has been held responsible for numerous terrorist attacks, including a terrorist bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 305 people, and the 1994 suicide bombing against a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people and injuring 300.
They have also been accused of assassinating a high-profile Lebanese politician.
Not including yesterday's attack, Hezbollah has launched more than 1,800 cross-border drone, rocket and artillery strikes on Israel in the past 10 months.
Israel has struck more than 7,000 targets inside Lebanon, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
The risk for those living in the two areas is increasing, but Hamadeh says he is not afraid of dying.
"This enemy does not differentiate between one person and another. It's in its nature to kill," he said.
"Have you seen the children and women die in Gaza and Palestine? We've seen 40,000 people die."
The Palestinian health ministry has put the death toll for the conflict at more than 40,334 people, including more than 16,456 children.
The fighting has also killed 329 Israeli soldiers.
Former Middle East adviser to the Pentagon, from 2008 until 2015, Jasmine El-Gamal said Hezbollah is on call to Iran — its high-powered sponsor.
"I would put it this way. They are proxies when they need to be, when Iran orders Hezbollah to do something, Hezbollah will not say no," she said.
Hamadeh said despite the analysis of experts, like El-Gamal, Hezbollah's decision to escalate the war with Israel will not solely rest with Iran.
"(It) will be Lebanon's and in the history of our fight with the enemy, all decisions were Lebanon's," Hamadeh said.
"In our relationship with Iran, we are partners. We are not their followers. We are respected."
But Jasmine El-Gamal is not so sure.
"When it comes to war between Hezbollah and Israel. You can't separate that from a war between Iran and Israel. Iran has explicitly stated, we will back Hezbollah with our full force if there's a war between Israel and Hezbollah.
"Hezbollah is Iran's proxy. It's also what allows Iran to have strategic depth in the region around it. If Hezbollah is destroyed, Iran is weaker and Iran cannot allow itself to be perceived as weaker because it is always thinking about that big war that might happen."
Where it began
Looking out over the red terracotta roofs of the village of Taraya, in the Beka'a Valley, local warlord Hajj Mohamad Hamieh said Hezbollah was everywhere.
"Every house. All of these houses. Hezbollah is in them," Hajj Hamieh said.
The aging patriarch was here when Hezbollah formed.
"This area you're seeing here, is where the Iranians established Hezbollah. They started holding camps and passing by houses and places of worship," he said.
"They attracted everyone with the speed of lightning."
Hajj Hamieh detests Hezbollah.
He was a senior commander of the Amal movement. A Shia militia that pre-dated Hezbollah.
"Iran had no role here at all before 1979, 1980," he said.
"The Iranians came to Baalbek (and) started training camps in this village. They were warmly welcomed, because they were viewed as revolutionaries. The revolution opened a way for the Shia in Lebanon."
Hajj Hamieh can be outspoken while surrounded by Hezbollah in his village. He is protected because of his status.
The 60-year-old took part in militia campaigns for Amal in the 1970s.
He boasts about his brother Akel, who was responsible for multiple plane hijackings during his lifetime.
"We used to train in secret," he said.
"Akel hijacked six planes … TWA, a Kuwaiti, a Libyan, Middle East. Six hijacking operations. Akel was its leader."
The group were hoping the hijackings would draw attention to the kidnapping of Musa Sadr, a revered Shia leader.
No one was injured or killed during Akel's hijackings.
"We felt like we had wings and were flying. No one was like us," he said.
"Not once did we feel that we were dying. Death was a normal thing for us."
Like the days of his youth, he says the future for Lebanon will likely be punctuated by violence.
"This politics of the West does not make sense," he said.
"When one defends their land, they are considered terrorists. So, what do they expect from us? To remain colonised so that we are not labelled as terrorists?
"We are merely trying to liberate our own land."
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Credits:
Story by: and Jonathan Miller
Photography and video: Ron Foley
Digital production: and
