I can't say where I am exactly. Actually, I don't have any idea where I am, so even if I was allowed to, I couldn't tell you.
I know it's southern Lebanon, because as soon as we crossed the border, my Blackberry got a text message welcoming me to a new cell service.
I am in what the IDF calls a Puma, a kind of armored vehicle, which sounds sleek and fast, and it may be, but right now it is crammed with soldiers. Literally, when one person moves, we all have to adjust our position.
Cameraman Neil Hallsworth and I are embedded with a unit of combat engineers operating inside southern Lebanon. I can't talk about the mission until it's over, but safe to say, the unit we are with is targeting Hezbollah positions.
It's just before midnight. The Puma has no windows, so you can't see out. Riding in one can be kind of disorienting.
It's an armored vehicle, but the soldiers know that doesn't guarantee their safety. Hezbollah has been very effective at using anti-tank weapons, RPGs, and IEDs.
In some ways, Hezbollah is a double threat for Israeli forces. On the one hand, they have the zeal of jihadist guerrillas. And on the other hand, they have at least one state sponsor, Iran, and support from another, Syria, so they have money and plenty of modern weapons.
"They are tough," one Israeli soldier said to me. "They have courage, but they are just people."
I think about that a lot. He meant of course, they are human beings, not supermen, not phantoms. They can be located, shot and killed.
That's what the unit I'm with now is hoping to do -- find the enemy and kill them. This embed is only supposed to last about eight hours. It's a pretty direct mission, but you never know what can happen. I'll write more later.
