The Israeli military has recovered the body of one of four sailors reported missing after a naval warship was hit by Hizbollah fire off the coast of Lebanon, the Israeli army said this morning.
The attack, which the Lebanese guerrilla group launched against a fleet of military vessels Israel has deployed during an offensive against Hizbollah, caused severe damage to the ship.
The army said four seamen were missing after the attack.
Israeli military commander Brigadier-General Ido Nehushtan said the body of one of the sailors was found at sea and that the military was searching for the other three.
Hizbollah said it hit the ship with an unmanned drone packed with explosives, but Nahushtan said the group had launched an Iranian-made missile at the vessel.
"This shows very profound thumbprints of Iranian involvement in Hizbollah," he said, adding that a civilian vessel, likely to be from Egypt, was sunk by another missile fired by the group.