The Israeli government now believes that German and Dutch warships patrolling the Lebanese coast as part of a UN peacekeeping force are behind disturbances experienced over the past month by Israel's one million satellite television customers.
Israel's sole satellite television provider, Yes, has been inundated with complaints of fuzzy and frozen television images since early September, and warned the government that it would face bankruptcy if the source of the disturbances was not found.
After weeks of searching, Israel's Ministry of Defense said it was fairly certain that monitoring equipment aboard the UN ships was causing the problem. The UN is believed to have significantly increased its surveillance of Israel following the alleged September 6 Israeli air raid on a suspected nuclear facility deep inside neighboring Syria.
Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev told Agence France-Presse that Israeli diplomats have "approached people in charge of the international peacekeeping mission in New York and communications specialists will work on the issue."