Israeli Aircraft Within Missile Range of West Bank Villages – Report

Text of report by web version of Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv on 29 July

[Report by Avi Ashkenazi: "Exposed on Landing"]

In recent days, hundreds of aircraft coming in to land at Ben- Gurion Airport have been forced to fly at low altitude over hostile areas in Judea and Samaria, which were formerly described by Israel’s defence and intelligence officials as areas posing a danger to passenger aircraft. The reason why passengers’ lives are being placed in danger is that one of two runways at Ben-Gurion airport is closed for repair work.

The Airports Authority decided to carry out repair and upgrade work to the main runway, 12-30, at Ben-Gurion Airport. This runway is used by most aircraft for landing and take-off. The runway is due to be covered with another layer of asphalt, and a series of repairs is due to be carried out on it. The runway is due to be closed for a number of months.

Due to the fact that the repairs are being carried out in the summer months, the airport’s administration feared bottlenecks in take-offs and landings and a disruption to flight schedules because only one runway would be in use. So it decided that take-offs and landings would be made on another runway, in a phased way and with short time frames, with landings being made at the start of runway 08-26, and some take-offs being made simultaneously from another part of the same runway.

This may be a way of preventing schedule disruptions, but landing on 08-26 requires all aircraft to circle Ben-Gurion Airport from the east. The aircraft are thus forced to fly over a number of hostile villages in Judea and Samaria, flying at low altitude and while in the advanced stages of landing. In practice, the planes are exposed to shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles from terrorist organizations.

In the past, the Shin Bet and IDF instructed the Transportation Ministry and the Airports Authority to do the maximum to avoid carrying out landings on runway 08-26 in order to reduce to a minimum the possibility of aircraft being hit during landing as they passed over these villages. The defence establishment even instructed the Airports Authority that, in the event of an aircraft being directed to land on runway 08-26, security elements needed to be updated beforehand so that the aircraft would not be placed in danger.

Sources in the Airports Authority told Ma’ariv yesterday that before the repair work began and before aircraft were directed to land on part of runway 08-26, the defence establishment was updated and the authorizations were received. The Airports Authority refused to say whether the aircraft coming in to land are in danger. Avner Ovadyah, spokesman of the Ministry of Transportation, said in response: “In the past, aircraft did not fly over the area of Judea and Samaria, but the flights were approved recently following staff work in the defence establishment, the security department, and the Ministry of Transportation, and after all the necessary security measures were taken.”

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