The radical Islamic Jihad movement has claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn kamikaze attack on an Israeli naval patrol boat that left four sailors wounded and the two Palestinian militants dead.
The Israeli military said their vessel was patrolling off the Jewish settlement of Dugit on the northwest coast of the Gaza Strip, when a fishing boat was spotted moving towards into Israeli waters.
A small naval patrol boat, the Dabour, was sent to the area to identify the boat. As it approached, the sailors identified two ”suspicious figures” on the boat, it continued.
”After several attempts to make contact, water was sprayed at the boat to force it out of the banned area. That had no effect.
The patrol boat fired warning shots and after several minutes there was an explosion,” the statement said.
It did not say whether the Israeli shots had hit the boat or what happened to the two men on board.
An Israeli army representative said the two men had probably died in the blast.
Following the explosion, the army slapped a ban on all boat traffic along the Gaza Strip’s coast. – Sapa-AFP