Ancient sarcophagus found in Samaria after attempted robbery

A group of thieves was spotted by a trustee of the Samaria Regional Council during an antiquities tour of the Old Samaria National Park on Sunday, according to a statement from the Samaria Regional Council.

Yossi Dagan, the head of the Samaria Regional Council, responded by requesting that the Israeli Defense Forces send in personnel to deal with the thieves, which it did. 

Security forces caught the thieves and discovered that they had uncovered thousand-year-old sarcophagi in their attempt to rob the site. 

Dagan said, "We will [be diligent] in protecting historical sites and heritage. The solution is to install security officers on site."

"This is one of the most important historical and archaeological sites in the State of Israel," Dagan said, "which [has been] ... abandoned. A single relic of the ancient Kingdom of Israel and the palace of the kings of Israel. [If we do not install security officers on site,]  the State of Israel will very quickly lose a historical site of global value, and of tremendous value to the Jewish people."

The group "Shomrim al ha-Netzach" ("Safeguarding Eternity"), which describes itself as a coalition of organizations for the protection, preservation and development of antiquities and heritage sites in Judea and Samaria, condemned the attempted robbery, saying: 

"This is a thuggish and barbaric act of robbery ... without any archaeological oversight. This is erasing heritage in broad daylight. It is the duty of the State of Israel to act and prevent any action of this kind. We congratulate the IDF  for the response today, even though it should have been prevented in advance."

Recent instances of illegal possession of antiquities 

In May 2022, the Israel Antiquities Authority seized rare coins bearing the name “Shimon,” the leader of the Bar Kochba revolt, which were among some 1,800 coins, pottery plates with inscriptions, an ancient bronze figurine and antique rings from the Modi’in home of a suspected illegal antiquities dealer.

Before that, thousands of rare antiquities were confiscated and a Palestinian antiquities dealer and thief was arrested in a complex pre-dawn operation in the Nablus area in February 2022 following a months-long undercover investigation and intelligence surveillance by the Civil Administration (COGAT).

Judith Sudilovsky contributed to this report.