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populated coastland and city regions of Israel. In a 1997 interview for the British Journal UFO Reality, Ronen summarized the goings-on in Israel: "All at once, UFOs have begun to appear in the centre of Israel and in other areas throughout the country, as well as simultaneously in Iran and Australia. At precisely the same time (August 1996) a tide of eyewitness reports came in, this time not from individual people, but involving a wave of mass reports, including an intervention by the police and the army. The succession of reports is so staggering that it is already impossible to keep track of the hundreds and thousands of eyewitness reports that pour in each day." One of the best documented sightings occurred on Sunday, August 4, 1996, around 2:30 A.M. in Eilat, Israel. According to some estimates, more than a thousand people saw a UFO traveling slowly over the perimeter of the city at a height of 200 meters above ground. The local police stations and emergency centers were deluged with dozens of reported sightings. An eyewitness to the event was the son of the deputy mayor of Eilat, Rafi Edri. Regarding the event, he stated: "At 2:30 A.M., a group of 50 people stood and watched a UFO, like a giant tent full of lights, light up the sky above two residential districts. The UFO passed just over our heads at a height of not more than 100-200 metres. The event lasted close to ten minutes. Suddenly, without any advance warning, it disappeared."'® Other residents who observed the UFO stated that at first it was semicircle-shaped; afterwards it split in two, then instantaneously disappeared. In a similar sighting in August 1996, the deputy editor of the local paper in Eilat reported an enormous red-and- purple boomerang-shaped UFO the size of "half a city" which split in two, then floated above the city of Aqaba and disappeared above Jordan. According to published reports, in September 1996, in the village of Netanya, an estimated 5,000 people were terrified when a UFO descended between a group of nearby buildings. The event was witnessed by numerous local officials, including at least ten police patrol cars." On other occasions residents have reported disruption of electrical appliances, burn marks on the ground, burnt out street lamps, "crop circle" landing sites, cattle mutilations, close encounters with "giant alien entities," and yes, even alleged alien abductions.'® One of Israel's best known journalists, Barry Chamish, has extensively researched the recent events in the skies over Israel. Chamish, who is the chief editor of Inside Israel, an investigative news journal, stated that "Israel is recognized as an international UFO hot spot —with an unsurpassed quantity and quality of evidence."!* Due to the enormity of the Israeli flap, Barry Chamish and many of his journalistic col-leagues have dubbed the events as "The Big Invasion." In fact, the frequent sightings of UFOs and alleged contact with alien entities was even discussed—with no resolution—by the Knesset on February 12, 1997. According to those who have studied the events over Israel, there is a very puzzling aspect of this UFO flap. Researchers note that the sightings appear to be occurring almost exclusively over the tiny land mass of the Jewish state rather thanthroughout the Middle 12