Peretz: We didn't fire at German naval vessel

Defense Minister Amir Peretz denied last night that Israel Air Force warplanes had fired missiles at a German naval vessel off the Mediterranean coast in the north of the country on Tuesday.

Peretz called his German counterpart, Franz Josef Jung, to inform him that such a firing did not take place, nor does Israel have any intention to fire on German forces. He added that cooperation between Israel and UNIFIL in the area should be upgraded.

The Israel Defense Forces spokesman conceded that an incident occurred Tuesday morning: a helicopter took off from a ship off of Rosh Hanikra without identifying itself, as agreed upon with the United Nations. As a result, jets were scrambled, but the IDF said no missiles were fired, although the planes discharged flares. Tensions have been on the rise over the past few days between Israel and UNIFIL, whose commanders are complaining of Israeli flyovers in Lebanese air space.

The German daily Der Tagesspiegel quoted a German junior defense minister yesterday as telling a parliamentary committee that two Israeli F-16 fighters had flown low over a German ship patrolling off Lebanon, firing twice.

The jets also activated infra-red countermeasures to ward off any rocket attack, the paper quoted him as saying, in an advance release of today's edition.

The minister did not say when the incident happened, or what had caused it.

"I can confirm that there was an incident," a ministry spokesman said yesterday. He declined to give further details since an investigation was under way. Germany assumed command of a UN naval force off Lebanon 10 days ago, and has sent eight ships and 1,000 service personnel to join the international peacekeeping operation in the region.

The naval force is charged with preventing weapons smuggling, and helping maintain a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.