The security forces' fear of an infiltration of hostile elements into Israel appears to be so deep, that air traffic controllers recently sent two warplanes and two assault helicopters towards suspicious lights in the sky, which turned out to be… stars.

Weekly magazine Bamahane, published by the Israel Defense Forces, reports that on the evening after the 'Nakba Day' events two weeks ago, the control tower at the Air Force's Haifa base spotted a number of unidentified aircraft.

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The Air Control Unit immediately sent out warplanes and assault helicopters to search for the intruders. As they were scanning the sky, the pilots began suspecting that the flashing lights mistaken as aircraft were in fact a Cassiopeia constellation formed by five bright stars in the northern skies.

One of the helicopters landed near the control towers, and after observing the threat with the air traffic controllers, the pilot confirmed that the suspicious "enemy aircraft" were indeed stars.

The pilots told Bamahane that they handled the situation with the utmost care until it became clear that the State of Israel was not in any danger.

"Many things seem unnecessary in retrospect, but in real time it's important not to take any risks," one of them said.