Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

American tourists brought a shell to the Israeli airport

One man was hospitalized for injuries sustained as he tried to flee via a baggage carousel

An American child visiting Israel found an unexploded shell in the Golan Heights, and the child’s parents decided to take it home as a souvenir, apparently unaware that a bomb can endanger anyone who comes near it.

At Ben Gurion Airport Thursday, security officials found the incendiary projectile packed in the family’s luggage and quickly moved to evacuate the terminal. Travelers grabbed their children and rushed to the exits, and some dropped to the ground. A 32-year-old man was hospitalized after trying to take a shortcut onto a baggage carousel. Video posted to Twitter captures the chaos:

Israeli and Syria have fought repeatedly in the Golan Heights, with wars in 1967 — when Israel captured the territory — and 1973. Israeli annexed the land in 1981, and former President Donald Trump made the U.S. the first country to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 2019.. Israelis are taught to never handle anything that looks like debris left over from the fighting.

After they were interviewed by Israeli security at the airport, the family was allowed to board its flight home.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.