Western Spy Submarine Entered Israeli Waters

Nov. 15, 2004
Arieh O'Sullivan
THE JERUSALEM POST

The Israeli Navy said Monday that it believes the submarine detected last week inside Israel's territorial waters off the shores of Nahariya belonged to a Western navy.

The incident occurred overnight on November 9-10 off the northern coast of Israel. The Navy detected the submarine after it had penetrated two nautical miles into Israel's territorial waters, about 18 kilometers from shore.

Military sources said Monday that the submarine had probably been on an espionage mission, but alternately it could have "strayed" into Israeli waters before it was detected.

Navy defenses detected a "submerged" object which they later classified as a submarine, but sources refused to reveal further details about its size. The Navy followed the submarine for a few hours, but the moment it took active measures to close in on the submarine, it quickly turned and headed back to international waters.

Israel's Navy immediately dispatched surface vessels to intercept the submarine. The Navy's 'Satil' and 'Dabur' boats could not reach their target in time, and the submarine slipped out of Israeli territorial waters before the confrontation. The IDF reacted to the penetration of Israel's territorial waters as a "hostile act," the report said. Helicopters and other measures were also deployed in the hunt for the submarine.

"We assume that the submarine belonged to a Western navy. It had probably been on a spying mission," a senior military source told The Jerusalem Post.

Submarines mostly function on intelligence gathering missions including electronic and photographic surveillance.

The Navy regards the incident as a success for the Israeli military since the submarine was detected very soon after its infiltration. Officers did say that at no stage of the incident did the submarine pose a security threat, Army Radio reported.

"The main thing is that it was detected, and therefore it failed in its mission," a senior military officer said.

Senior Navy officials said these sort of incidents happen "once in a while," meaning every few years, but that the matter is highly classified. Army Radio reported that the defense establishment tried to keep the story under wraps, and it was only spoken of today due to a leak to the press.

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee criticized the IDF for not informing it of the incident, Israel Radio reported. MKs Hemi Doron (Shinui) and Orit Noked (Labor) on Monday urged committee chairman Yuval Steinitz to call an urgent meeting of the committee to review the episode.

MK Doron said that the IDF's concealment of the incident from the committee is as serious as the fact that the sub managed to slip into Israeli waters. Steinitz said he would not convene an emergency meeting of the committee, mostly because he views the incident as a success for the Israeli Navy, as it managed to detect and chase off a foreign submarine.

"I see this as an unqualified success. Our territorial waters are small, and the submarine was picked up very shortly after entering them. The submarine entered a few kilometers, and made a retreat after it was detected. The Navy detected the sub and was capable of sinking it. Detecting submarines is extremely difficult. The fact that we are not in a time of total war, in which you immediately attack suspicious vessels such as this, also counts here. It could very well be that this submarine was American or French, Russian or Italian, who are regular visitors in the Mediterranean sea. If we attacked the submarine, dozens of American or French sailors would have died unnecessarily. We chose not to destroy the submarine, but rather to chase it away," Steinitz said.

"This incident points out just how important the Naval element is in Israel's defensive system," he added.

The sea off Israel's coast, defined as Israel's sovereign territorial waters, ranges to about 12 to 14 miles.

The Navy is examining whether the submarine could have been on an intelligence-gathering mission or possibly checking the level of alertness of the Israeli fleets.

Terrorist groups are not known to be in possession of submarines, which require complex and costly technological expertise and investment. Former Navy commander Avraham Ben Shoshan told Army Radio that terrorist groups tried to acquire submarines in the eighties and were not successful for various reasons.

The incident occurred three days after Hizbullah managed to send an unmanned aerial drone over the skies of northern Israel.

According to the Middle East Strategic Balance published by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, the Syrians have three submarines, but they are not in active service.

Libya has two submarines, but they too are inactive. Lebanon does not have any submarines. Egypt has four and Iran has three. Turkey has 12 submarines. The United States also operates submarines in the eastern Mediterranean.

In an interview on Army Radio, Ben Shoshan reiterated that the submarine's mission was most likely to spy on Israel, and not to attack an Israeli target. "Its very interesting in Israel now, and very interesting in the region too," Shoshan said.

He added that the submarine that violated Israel's territorial waters last week "fled" after it realized it had been detected. "The submarine failed in its mission, whatever that mission was," Ben Shoshan said.

"Once it is detected, a submarine ceases to be the hunter. It becomes the hunted. The fact is this is what happened. The submarine was detected and it ran away. Instead of focusing on the penetration of Israel's waters, you could also say the Navy reacted well," Ben Shoshan added.

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