A massive manhunt for infiltrators from Lebanon ended Monday afternoon when IDF troops in northern Israel located two Turkish nationals who had crossed the border the night before.
The two men were found hiding in agricultural land close to the Western Galilee border town of Shlomi and were detained for questioning.
One of the two told soldiers that they had entered Israel in order to look for work.
The infiltration was discovered at around 9:30pm Sunday, and residents of Shlomi and nearby Kibbutz Hanita were immediately directed to remain indoors.
Large numbers of security forces were deployed to search the area for the infiltrators and some roads near the border were closed to traffic.
Soldiers used flares to light up the night sky and IAF helicopters were also deployed in the area while local residents were instructed to remain in their homes for hours.
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IDF troops hunting for infiltrators from Lebanon on Sunday night
(Photo: Shlomi Regional Council)
While the military said it did not believe the two had crossed the border in order to carry out an attack and were likely migrant workers, the residents of the area expressed concerns over the potential implications of the breach.
Local residents of the area said that they were concerned that the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group had dispatched the infiltrators in an attempt to spot weaknesses in the military defenses at the frontier.
A resident of Kibbutz Hanita, which is close to the Israel-Lebanon border, told Ynet he believed the Iran-backed terror group was studying the response to the infiltration to see how forces were deployed in the area.
"This will cost us in blood," he said.
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IDF flares illuminate the night sky during a hunt for infiltrators from Lebanon on Sunday night
Shlomi Mayor Gabi Neeman on Monday demanded the completion of a security wall along the border whose construction was delayed for budgetary considerations.
Neeman said he had spoken to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and IDF officials following an incident last July in which a Sudanese migrant worker crossed the border from Lebanon and entered Shlomi, where he remained undetected for a number of days.
He said he had received assurances that the border fence would be completed, but there had been no developments since then.