Something crossed the border from Lebanon on Saturday night and flew over the heads of Israelis in the Western Galilee. Nearly a full day later, the IDF still cannot say what it was.
The siren went off at 7:57 p.m. in Arab al-Aramshe, a village on the border fence. Troops and helicopters spent the night combing the area, checkpoints went up, and searches spread to communities across the Western Galilee, as far as Nahariya. They found nothing.
It took the army about four hours to say anything official. When it did, the statement confirmed only that lookouts had spotted an unidentified aerial object near the border, that searches were continuing, and that nothing unusual had turned up.
By Sunday morning, security camera footage of the object was circulating online, and so were the theories. Ynet reported the army is checking whether it was a type of drone Israel has not seen before. A military source told Walla a powered paraglider could not be ruled out. Other Hebrew outlets suggested something far less dramatic, like a bag or a balloon that drifted over on the wind.
For the people who live there, "we don't know" is not good enough.
Moshe Davidovich, who heads the Mateh Asher Regional Council and chairs the forum of confrontation-line communities, wrote to residents on Sunday that life was returning to routine after an overnight alert, with security forces and checkpoints still in place. Then he made clear that he is not satisfied either.
"We are aware of the questions raised by the incident," he wrote. Because of "the lack of clarity," he said, he contacted the head of the Northern Command on Sunday morning and demanded an immediate meeting for himself and every council head along the border. He wants "a full, clear and unequivocal investigation."
Military correspondent Noam Amir was blunter. It took the IDF four hours to tell residents that "something" had come in from Lebanon, he wrote, and it still says it does not know what.
"I'm sorry, but I find it difficult to believe that they do not know," Amir wrote. "I am more inclined to believe that they simply do not want to respond. And the residents of the north deserve answers."
These are the same communities that spent more than a year evacuated from their homes, and that were told it was safe to come back. They are used to sirens. An object crossing the border, vanishing, and leaving no explanation behind is something new for them.
The IDF says the searches are continuing and that it has not ruled out a security incident.
