Hamas says it has targeted an Israeli warship off the coast of Gaza with a rockets and as unconfirmed information note they tried to strike the ship also with a mini autonomous submarine and launched dozens of rockets at Ashdod, Ashkelon and Beersheba in response to “striking” our people in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army confirmed the news and said: One of our naval ships was shot with a missile without suffering any damage, we thwarted the attack and destroyed the attackers.
Israeli media reported that Hamas has small autonomous GPS-guided submarines, armed with 50 kilograms of explosives, designed for suicide missions against naval targets, but most of which already have been destroyed by Israel.
That mini-submarines probably are to blame for today’s attack against the Israeli vessel.
It is possible that Hamas planned from the start of the conflict to use these submarines to hit the Israeli navy as well as offshore gas extraction platforms. At the same time, the Israeli air force carried out new airstrikes on rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Air Force also made an announcement about the incident:
“Over the last days, Israeli naval troops spotted suspicious activity in the Northern Gaza Strip, nearby assets of the Hamas’ naval forces, and tracked the movements of a number of suspect enemy combatants.
Today, using IAF aircraft surveillance and naval capabilities, several of the suspects were spotted with a vessel, suspected of being a Hamas submergible naval weapon.
The vessel was being taken to the shore and appeared to be on its way to carry out a terror attack in Israeli waters. A short while ago, an IDF naval vessel and an IAF aircraft targeted the operators and the weapon in order to remove the threat.” the Israeli announcement concludes.
