A US family caused a bomb scare at Israel’s main international airport after presenting an unexploded artillery shell at a security check.
They had picked up the ordnance on a visit to the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, site of wars between Israel and Syria, according to authorities.
Video footage on social media showed people running from the scene in panic.
The family was allowed to board their flight after being interrogated by security, who gave the all-clear.
Israel captured most of the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967 and remnants of the conflict can still be found in the area.
Israel’s YNet news site said in the incident on Thursday night a member of the family produced the shell from their backpack and asked a security official if it could be put in a suitcase.
The official ordered her immediate vicinity to be cleared, but another passenger who misheard her started shouting “terrorists shooting”, triggering mass panic, the site said.
Video posted on social media by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster showed dozens of people shouting and fleeing the check-in area, with others crouching or lying on the floor in the confusion.
