When Israeli Air Force pilots see something they cannot explain
Dror Gorelik says a silver body passed within several hundred metres of his aircraft on approach to Tel Nof in 1998. A navigator in the lead aircraft saw a light, but there is no image, radar return or public Air Force file. The public debate of 1996 and an unverified story involving Dan Tolkowsky form the wider context.
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Dror Gorelik describes the encounter approaching Tel Nof
This is the complete filmed interview with Gorelik. YouTube displays a disclosure that sounds or visuals were altered or generated. The opening image and graphic packaging are therefore not presented as evidence. This report relies on the recorded witness account.
Dan Tolkowsky in an archival photograph
The photograph identifies the former Air Force commander. It is unrelated to Gorelik's event and does not verify the content of the conversation attributed to Tolkowsky.
Midday in 1998, approaching Tel Nof
The interview published on September 11, 2026 goes beyond a vague report of a light. Dror Gorelik, an F15 pilot and former squadron commander, places the event in 1998 during a large Air Force exercise. He was returning from his second sortie with Squadron 106 as number two in a pair. A pilot and navigator occupied the lead aircraft while Gorelik flew alone. At about 12:30, under a clear summer sky, he noticed a powerful yellow light at low altitude while approaching Tel Nof.
The light acquired a shape
Gorelik first wondered whether another aircraft was entering the pattern head on. In moments, he realised that the light had passed the leader and was between them. He says the body passed slightly to his left at an estimated 300 to 400 metres. He described a silver metallic form resembling a mushroom or muffin, with a dome above, two curves below and a flat base. The point of light resolved into yellow lights around its circumference. He saw no trail, exhaust or visible propulsion and watched it disappear behind his twin tails.
A second witness, but no radar return
After landing, Gorelik told the lead crew what he had seen. The pilot noticed nothing. According to Gorelik, the navigator had seen a strong yellow light pass beneath their wing, but interpreted it as moving backward and did not report it. This adds another observer of the light, not of the detailed shape. Gorelik says neither the tower nor control saw an object or received a radar return. His aircraft camera was not operating before the landing gear was lowered, and helmet cameras were not then available.
Expertise is not a photograph, but it changes the testimony
Gorelik knew meteorological balloons, had watched a rocket launch and spent his career identifying things in the air. He does not call the object a spacecraft or assign it an origin. Fighter experience cannot turn memory into sensor data, and pilots can misjudge distance, size and speed. Still, the identified witness supplies conditions, formation position, distance, geometry and actions after landing. Those details can be tested against flight records and other crew members.
The senior name without the missing document
Another strand involves Major General Dan Tolkowsky, Air Force commander from 1953 to 1958 and a longtime friend of Jacques Vallée. Researchers circulated a claim that Tolkowsky contacted Vallée in 2021, at age one hundred, about urgent modern sightings in Israel. We found no direct statement by Vallée, recording, letter or open diary entry confirming that wording. Public material does establish their relationship and Tolkowsky's interest in the UFO question. The alleged conversation cannot enter the factual column without its source.
What the 1996 wave actually left on record
In summer 1996, Science Minister Benny Begin rejected a proposed government committee. Reporting quoted atmospheric scientist Ariel Cohen showing how a domestic camera could turn Jupiter into a strange luminous form. In January 1997, member of parliament Avi Yehezkel formally asked what the state knew. Ministry director general Zvi Yanai replied that there was no authoritative evidence of visits from space and that an unexplained report did not prove a hypothesis. Later retellings describe a Tel Aviv traffic jam and an interceptor chasing a saucer, but we found no contemporary document or Air Force confirmation.
The file that has not been opened
American readers have become accustomed to sensor clips, radio calls and official reports. Israel offers almost no comparable public framework. If the sortie log, crew list and debrief survive, Gorelik's setting can be checked. If the navigator speaks, their memories can be compared. If no internal file exists, that creates an aviation safety question because an unidentified body allegedly passed between two fighters approaching a base.
Sources and context
In a filmed interview, Gorelik gave concrete details about a 1998 encounter: two F15 aircraft in formation, clear midday conditions, an estimated distance of 300 to 400 metres and a silver body surrounded by yellow lights. He says the navigator in the lead aircraft later confirmed seeing a strong yellow light pass beneath the wing.
No exact date, sortie log, debrief, radio recording, radar data or event photograph has been released. The navigator has not been identified or interviewed publicly. The claimed 2021 conversation between Dan Tolkowsky and Jacques Vallée, and the story of a 1996 interception, also lack an accessible first source.