The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a U.S. Navy intelligence ship, USS Liberty, in international waters about 12.5 nautical miles (23 km) from the coast of the Sinai Peninsula, north of El Arish, by Israeli fighter planes and torpedo boats on June 8, 1967.

It occurred during the Six-Day War, a conflict between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The Israeli attack killed 34 U.S. servicemen and wounded at least 173. The attack was the second deadliest against a U.S. Naval vessel since the end of World War II, surpassed only by the Iraqi Exocet missile attack on the USS Stark on May 17, 1987, and marked the single greatest loss of life by the U.S. Intelligence Community.

Both the Israeli and American governments conducted multiple inquiries into the incident, and issued reports concluding that the attack was a tragic mistake, caused by confusion about the identity of the USS Liberty. These conclusions have been challenged from several fronts, most notably by an organization of several Liberty survivors, as well as by some key former high-ranking officials who were in office at the time in the United States government, including the Secretary of State, The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Director of the NSA, and the senior legal counsel to the U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry into the incident. The matter is officially closed for purposes of Israeli-American relations, but remains controversial in the public debate.

Israel's official position is that the attack was an accident. Officials say they were assured by the United States that no U.S. ships were in the area, and that its air and naval forces mistakenly identified Liberty as the Egyptian vessel El Quseir. Proponents say such mistakes were inevitable in the tense atmosphere of the Six-Day War, and that no concrete motive existed for Israel to initiate a surprise attack against a country that was quickly becoming its most powerful and important ally.

Others claim that the attack was premeditated and deliberate. They note that the Liberty was more than twice as large as the El Quseir, and was clearly designated with Latin rather than Arabic letters and numbers. Proponents include the surviving Liberty crewmen, [1] and some former U.S. government officials, including then-CIA director Richard Helms and then-Secretary of State Dean Rusk as well as Admiral Thomas Hinman Moorer, former Chief of Naval Operations and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The United States and Israel exchanged diplomatic notes after several inquiries. Though the United States never officially accepted the Israeli explanation, it agreed to accept indemnities of $13 million for damage and casualties. [wikipedia]

German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung has said the Israeli military's chief-of-staff had "expressed his regret" to his German counterpart for the armed incident in which Israeli warplanes fired at a German warship.

"I don't expect any repeat of such an incident," Jung said late Friday on ZDF, Germany's national public television broadcaster.

Israeli jets fired in the air over a German intelligence-gathering ship off Lebanon's coast, German officials said Friday, as both countries continued to give different versions of what happened.

The ship, the 83-meter Alster, was not listed as part of the German flotilla sent to prevent weapons smuggling off the coast of Lebanon as part of the expanded U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said.

Raabe said the Alster was 90 kilometers off the coast in international waters when six Israeli F-16s flew over it and misaimed shots were fired in the air. The unarmed ship was there as part of efforts to protect the UNIFIL naval force, he said, noting that Israeli vessels had been hit with missiles during fighting with Hamas.

Asked what the motive for the jets' overflight was, he said, "I don't want to speculate. I don't think there is a serious background." He added that Israel had high security needs given the situation in the Middle East.

Raabe wouldn't say how Israel explained the incident to Germany's government.

Israel issued a statement saying that the planes approached a helicopter after it took off Tuesday from a German ship without notifying Israeli forces. The Israelis denied shots were fired. --AP