Participating in an excavation as part of their mandatory national service, two young Israelis discovered a trove of gold coins from the 10th century CE, when the Baghdad-based Abbasid caliphate ruled most of the Middle East, including the Land of Israel. The Jerusalem Post reports:

“The cache, deliberately buried in the ground inside a clay jug, held 424 gold coins, with most dated to the early Islamic period and the Abbasid dynasty,” explained Liat Nadav-Ziv and Eli Hadad, the administrators of the dig. “The person who buried his treasure 1,100 years ago definitely expected to come back to take it, and even fixed the vessel with a nail so that it would not move.”

It’s unknown why the person who buried the coins didn’t return to get them.

Robert Cole, a coin expert at the Israel Antiquities Authority, explained that the coin cache was one of the oldest ever found from the Abbasid period. The coins were made of 846 grams of solid 24-karat gold. “A significant amount of money in those days,” explained Cole. “For example with a sum [of cash] like this, a person could buy a fancy house in one of the best neighborhoods in Fustat, the capital of Egypt” [where Moses Maimonides would later make his home].

On Tuesday, a Hizballah drone attack injured three people in northern Israel. The next day, another attack, targeting an IDF base, injured eighteen people, six of them seriously, in Arab al-Amshe, also in the north. This second attack involved the simultaneous use of drones carrying explosives and guided antitank missiles. In both cases, the defensive systems that performed so successfully last weekend failed to stop the drones and missiles. Ron Ben-Yishai has a straightforward explanation as to why: the Lebanon-backed terrorist group is getting better at evading Israel defenses. He explains the three basis systems used to pilot these unmanned aircraft, and their practical effects:

These systems allow drones to act similarly to fighter jets, using “dead zones”—areas not visible to radar or other optical detection—to approach targets. They fly low initially, then ascend just before crashing and detonating on the target. The terrain of southern Lebanon is particularly conducive to such attacks.

But this requires skills that the terror group has honed over months of fighting against Israel. The latest attacks involved a large drone capable of carrying over 50 kg (110 lbs.) of explosives. The terrorists have likely analyzed Israel’s alert and interception systems, recognizing that shooting down their drones requires early detection to allow sufficient time for launching interceptors.

The IDF tries to detect any incoming drones on its radar, as it had done prior to the war. Despite Hizballah’s learning curve, the IDF’s technological edge offers an advantage. However, the military must recognize that any measure it takes is quickly observed and analyzed, and even the most effective defenses can be incomplete. The terrain near the Lebanon-Israel border continues to pose a challenge, necessitating technological solutions and significant financial investment.