A family of American tourists sparked panic on Thursday at the airport in Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest, after showing security guards an unexploded grenade.
The military artifact, they said, was found on a visit to the Golan Heights, a territory on the border with Syria that Israel annexed after the Six-Day War in 1967. The family’s idea, according to the Times of Israel, was apparently take it as a kind of souvenir—it was packed in a white plastic bag.
There was barely time for the unusual attempt to explain the reasons to the airport security team, however: when passengers were asked to remove the passengers from the boarding area, as a precaution, people around despaired and panicked in the terminal.
Images published on social media show dozens of passengers crouching or lying on the ground, worried about a possible detonation and the possibility that the case could be a possible terrorist attack.
According to the Israel Airport Authority, a 32-year-old man needed to be hospitalized after he injured himself trying to flee and tripped over a baggage carousel. The agency also clarified, according to the Reuters news agency, that after giving testimony to the security team, the family was allowed to board – without the military souvenir, of course.
It was unclear what was done with the artifact. Unexploded bombs can pose a risk: in December last year, for example, at least four people were injured after a World War II bomb exploded in Munich, Germany.
Israel has high levels of security and control at airports, largely due to a history of conflict. In recent weeks, tensions have grown in the country amid the celebrations of Muslim Ramadan, Jewish Passover and Christian Easter.
Last Sunday (24), the country closed its only crossing with the Gaza Strip to traders and workers, after Palestinians launched three rockets. The blockade is an attempt to exert economic pressure to convince Hamas to crack down on the attacks.
Two days earlier, more than 50 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa mosque complex in Jerusalem. Security forces were reported to have acted after hundreds of people began throwing rocks and fireworks, approaching the Western Wall, where a Jewish service was in progress.
The previous week, similar clashes had left more than 150 Palestinians injured.
Even before that, Israel was the target of specific attacks, most claimed by citizens of Arab or Bedouin origin and celebrated by Palestinian extremist groups. The Israeli counteroffensive also resulted in deaths.
The delicate situation still unfolded into a political crisis and internal threats. The country’s police investigate two threatening letters sent to the family of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett within a period of less than 48 hours. The prime minister’s wife and one of the children were the recipients of two envelopes that contained threats and firearm ammunition.
On Wednesday (27), the eve of the International Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust – celebrated this Thursday -, Bennett commented on the matter during a speech at Yad Vashem, considered the official memorial of the victims of the massacre promoted by the Nazi regime.
“Even during the darkest chapter of Jewish history, during the inferno of extermination of our people, the left and the right have not found a way to work together,” he said. “My brothers and sisters, we cannot allow the same dangerous gene of factionalism to dismantle Israel from within.
