"Iran is an hour away by boat, sometimes we see bombs": The Jewish journalist who visited Hormuz

Yitzchak Horowitz, a reporter for the Haredi newspaper 'Bakehila', visited the Musandam Peninsula on the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz, the main arena of conflict between the US and Iran. Locals described a sharp decline in tourism, goat smuggling from Iran, and attacks on oil tankers. A local captain claimed that the Israeli Mossad attacked an Iranian tanker attempting to smuggle oil.

Yitzchak Horowitz, a reporter for the Haredi newspaper 'Bakehila', visited the Musandam Peninsula on the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz, the main arena of conflict between the US and Iran in recent months. Horowitz spoke with local residents and workers who described the changes in the area since the outbreak of the war. According to locals, before the war thousands of tourists used to visit the peninsula, but now there are few visitors. An Iranian restaurant owner said that Iran is an hour away by boat, and that the many goats in the streets were brought from Iran for smuggling to the UAE. Regarding the fighting, he said that the village itself is quiet, but sometimes bombs can be seen falling on ships. A port captain described oil tankers waiting for nightfall to continue their journey for fear of attacks, and witnessed an attack on a tanker flying a Panamanian flag, which caught fire and killed one sailor. The captain claimed that it later turned out the tanker was Iranian-owned, and blamed the Israeli Mossad for the attack.