THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP ENCOUNTER REPORT

2004: Tel Aviv, Israel UFO Sighting | Jaffa Port Lights Case Archive

Shortly before 10 PM on July 6, 2004, a couple standing on their 12th-story Tel Aviv patio noticed two pale pink and blue lights hovering about 2,000 feet above Jaffa Port, three miles to the south. What followed, over the next 45 minutes, was a strange, shifting sequence: the two lights drifted slightly, dimmed, and vanished, only for a single light to appear hundreds of feet above where they’d been; that one faded and two more took its place; those disappeared one at a time; and, after a few dark minutes, two final lights drifted east and slipped out of sight behind a neighboring building. Through it all, the reporting witness carefully tracked two commercial airliners and a small passenger plane passing through the same sky, and was clear that none of them were what they’d been watching.

The witness’s spouse, the only other observer, went to bed partway through — a detail worth being upfront about, since it means real corroboration exists for only part of this unusually long and carefully documented sighting.

Date: July 6, 2004

Sighting Time: Shortly before 22:00 (approximately 21:55) to approximately 22:40

Day/Night: Night

Location: A 12th-story patio in Tel Aviv, Israel, overlooking Jaffa Port approximately 3 miles to the south

Urban or Rural: Urban

Hynek Classification: NL (Nocturnal Light) — point or extended luminous source observed at night, correctly applied given the roughly 2,000-foot altitude and 3-mile distance

Duration: Approximately 45 minutes

No. of Object(s): Never more than 2 lights visible simultaneously, but at least 4–5 distinct sequential appearances across the full 45-minute period. See Researcher’s Notes for the detailed sequence.

Description of the Object(s): Pale pink and blue lights, initially stationary, that dimmed and disappeared in sequence, with new lights repeatedly appearing nearby before likewise fading; no shape beyond point-like lights was described; made no reported sound

Shape of Object(s): Undocumented — corrected. The original field described the lights’ color, not a shape; no specific geometric shape is given anywhere in the source. See Researcher’s Notes.

Size of Object(s): Undocumented

Color of Object(s): Pale pink and blue. Moved here from the original, mislabeled Shape field.

Distance to Object(s): Approximately 3 miles to Jaffa Port, near which the lights were first seen

Height & Speed: Approximately 2,000 feet altitude at first sighting; lights were largely stationary or moved very slowly throughout

Number of Witnesses: 2 initially (the reporting witness and spouse); the spouse went to bed partway through and did not observe the entire 45-minute event. See Researcher’s Notes.

Special Features/Characteristics: Witness explicitly distinguished the lights from local helicopter traffic, which travels this coast daily due to activity in Gaza; two commercial airliners were separately observed descending from the west to approach Tel Aviv’s airports during the episode, and a small four-passenger plane also flew past along the coast toward Jaffa, meaning the lights would have been visible to its pilot; no photographs were taken, as the witnesses had recently relocated and their camera equipment had not yet arrived with their household goods

Case Status: Unexplained

Source: Undocumented — appears to be a directly submitted first-person account; original submission venue not specified

Summary/Description: Shortly before 10 PM on July 6, 2004, a couple on a 12th-story Tel Aviv patio observed a shifting sequence of pale pink and blue lights over Jaffa Port, roughly 2,000 feet up and 3 miles away, appearing, dimming, and disappearing repeatedly over about 45 minutes before the final lights moved east and vanished behind a neighboring building. The reporting witness carefully distinguished the lights from two commercial airliners and a small plane observed separately during the same period, and from the area’s regular helicopter traffic.

Related Cases: Undocumented — source does not reference other cases

Detailed Report

Shortly before 10 PM on July 6, 2004, the witness and their spouse were out on the patio of their 12th-story Tel Aviv apartment when the witness noticed two lights roughly 2,000 feet above Jaffa Port, about three miles to the south. Their first thought was helicopters, common enough along this stretch of coast given ongoing activity in Gaza — but these lights were a pale pink and blue, did not move at first, and simply dimmed before disappearing, nothing like the aircraft the witness was used to seeing.

What followed was an unusually long and involved sequence. The two initial lights, positioned roughly at what the witness described as the 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock positions relative to each other, drifted slowly to a 1 and 7 o’clock arrangement, grew dimmer, and disappeared. Almost immediately, a single light appeared hundreds of feet above where the first two had been. That light, too, faded over time, and a further two lights appeared in its place. One of those dimmed and vanished, and shortly afterward the second did as well. For a few minutes, nothing was visible at all. Then two more lights appeared, this time drifting slowly to the east before passing behind a neighboring tall building, blocking the witness’s view entirely. By the witness’s estimate, this final disappearance came at around 22:40 — roughly 45 minutes after the sighting began.

Throughout the episode, the witness kept track of the ordinary air traffic passing through the same sky: two commercial airliners descending from over the Mediterranean to approach Tel Aviv’s airports, and a small, four-passenger plane that flew past along the coast heading south toward Jaffa — close enough, the witness noted, that its pilot would likely have had the lights in view as well, though no account from that pilot is available. The witness was firm that none of this conventional traffic was what they had been watching.

No photographs exist of the sighting. The couple had only recently moved to the area, and their household belongings — including any camera or camcorder — had not yet arrived. The witness’s spouse, the only other person present, went to bed at some point during the 45-minute episode, leaving the witness alone to keep watching, reluctant to look away and miss any further changes in a sighting that, by their own admission, they never expected to last as long as it did.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

The Jaffa Port Lights — Israel 2004 and a 45-Minute Sequence

Field Correction: The original “Shape of Object(s)” field described the lights’ pale pink and blue coloration, not a shape; no specific geometric shape is given anywhere in the source. This entry moves that detail to Color and marks Shape as Undocumented.
Partial Corroboration: Two witnesses were present initially, but the reporting witness’s spouse went to bed partway through the 45-minute episode and did not observe its full course. The reporting witness continued watching alone for the remainder, wanting to catch any further changes.
A Complex, Multi-Phase Sequence: The “one to four” object count reflects a sequence in which no more than two lights were ever visible at the same moment, but at least four or five distinct appearances occurred one after another across the full 45 minutes — two lights at the start; a single light appearing after those vanished; a further two lights, of which one and then the other disappeared; and a final two lights that moved away and were lost behind a building. This entry presents that sequence explicitly rather than reducing it to a single count.
Careful Elimination of Conventional Explanations: The witness explicitly distinguished the lights from local helicopter traffic, a daily occurrence along this coast, and separately, independently observed two commercial airliners and a small passenger plane during the same episode, describing each clearly as ordinary air traffic distinct from the anomalous lights. This level of active discrimination between conventional and anomalous aerial activity is a meaningful, if not conclusive, point in the account’s favor.
No Photographic Record, Explained: The witnesses had no camera or camcorder available, having recently relocated with their household goods not yet delivered — a mundane, plausible explanation for the absence of any photographic documentation of an unusually long sighting.
Classification Notes: NL is correctly applied — the lights were observed from roughly 2,000 feet altitude and 3 miles’ distance, well outside any close-encounter threshold.

Forty-five minutes is a long time to watch an empty patch of sky refill itself with lights, and this witness did it alone for most of it, carefully logging every airliner and passenger plane that passed through the same view to make sure none of them got confused for what they were actually watching. That discipline, more than any single detail, is what earns this case its place as Unexplained rather than dismissed.