The Israel Navy on Monday released the HS Beethoven cargo ship which commandos
had boarded on Sunday in search of arms it suspected were being smuggled from
Lebanon to the Gaza Strip.
Commandos from the Navy’s Flotilla 13 – better
known as the Shayetet – boarded the ship as it was sailing from Beirut to
Alexandria, Egypt.
IDF sources said that the search, which lasted over 12
hours, came up empty and that the commandos did not discover weapons on
board.
The ship, which was flying a Liberian flag, was intercepted by
Israel Navy vessels approximately 260 km. from Israel’s coast. The commandos
boarded with the captain’s consent and proceeded to inspect containers that had
been loaded in Beirut.
While the IDF’s official statement said that the
ship was boarded as part of “routine patrol” in the Mediterranean Sea, the
decision to board the ship and send navy vessels and commando teams far from
Israeli shores was more likely done based on intelligence which indicated that
the ship might be carrying suspicious cargo.
Israel’s concern was that
the Beethoven was carrying weapons for either Hamas or Islamic Jihad in Gaza.
Last March, the navy intercepted a cargo ship called Victoria that was carrying
some 50 tons of weaponry and was on its way to Egypt. It was also flying a
Liberian flag and was headed to Alexandria.
If Israel acted on
intelligence when boarding the ship, its various intelligence agencies –
primarily the Mossad and Military Intelligence – will need to review their
sources and check that they did not fall for an Iranian sting operation, in
which Iran purposely planted intelligence to try and discover Israel’s sources
and methods of operation.
Efforts to stop Iranian arms from being
smuggled to Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah in Lebanon are nonstop and
include operations not just in the Mediterranean but also in the Red Sea. Other
western naval forces frequently assist Israel in patrolling the seas and in
questioning suspicious vessels.