Authorities arrested four civilians after they illegally crossed into Lebanon on Thursday, reportedly to visit the grave of a fourth-fifth-century Talmudic sage, the Israel Police said.
“A short time ago, the Israel Police received a complaint from Israel Defense Forces officials regarding four suspects who were captured inside Lebanese territory after crossing the border,” police stated.
“Officers of the Israel Police’s Northern District arrived at the scene, joined forces with army officials, and transferred the four (residents of Ashdod, Beit Shemesh and Hatzor Haglilit) for questioning,” it added.
Police stressed that crossing the border into enemy territory is dangerous and punishable with up to four years imprisonment.
According to Israel’s Army Radio, the group of Jewish Israelis was trying to reach the burial place of Rav Ashi (352–427)—the Babylonian sage credited with compiling the Gemara, an essential component of the Talmud—which was said to be located near the border between Israel and Lebanon near Manara, inside an IDF army post.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military admitted that a civilian organization advocating for Jewish settlement in Southern Lebanon had crossed the border fence close to the village of Maroun al-Ras earlier this month.
The military had initially denied that the activists, led by the Uri Tzafon (North Awaken) Movement, had entered Lebanon on Dec. 5, instead claiming they set up an encampment near an Israeli border town that was a closed military zone and that they were dispersed.
Following further investigation into the incident, the military said that “the civilians did indeed cross the blue line by several meters, and after being identified by IDF troops, they were dispersed,” adding that “this is a grave incident that is being investigated.”
On Nov. 20, Ze’ev Erlich, 71, a scholar and archaeological expert on the Land of Israel, was killed in a firefight with Hezbollah terrorists after entering Lebanon as a civilian alongside IDF troops.
Sgt. Gur Kehati, 20, of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, from Moshav Nir Banim, was also killed in the attack, which took place at an archeological site some four miles from the Israeli border.
Though Erlich was not an active reservist, the military’s Personnel Directorate (formerly called the Manpower Directorate and the Human Resources Directorate) decided to recognize him as a fallen IDF soldier. The circumstances surrounding his death are the subject of a probe.