Foreign sub in Israeli waters thought gathering intelligence

A foreign submarine that entered Israeli territorial waters last week, is believed have been from a Western nation friendly to Israel and on an intelligence-gathering mission, miltiary sources said Monday.

The vessel was detected near the beaches of the northern coastal city of Nahariya, sparking a naval high alert.

It was discovered only after penetrating three miles into Israeli waters. Navy patrol and missile boats detected the submarine, and were ordered to close on and follow it. But the submarine slipped out of the area before they arrived.

The craft's crew, apparently aware that it had been discovered, then turned the submarine and left the area.

Former navy chief Avraham Ben-Shushan said Monday that intelligence-gathering was the only purpose of a submarine of this type.

The defense establishment believes the sub was from a friendly nation, one with sound relations with Israel.

The navy has opened an investigation into the incident, to determine whether the submarine was on an intelligence mission, or had strayed off course.

An Army Radio report said the incident represented a "failure" on the part of security forces, "since the submarine succeeded in evading all notice in real time."

The report said that at the time, the navy had related to the craft as a "hostile target" and had placed all its ships and radar on highest alert.

There was no apparent tie to the flight of a drone over northern Israel three days before. The pro-Iranian Hezbollah organization claimed responsibility for the over-flight of the drone.

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the vessel belonged to a NATO member country and was detected during the night between Nov. 9-10.