Two Palestinian militants blew up an explosives-laden fishing boat in a failed attack on an Israeli patrol boat this morning, killing themselves and wounding four sailors, the army and Palestinians said.
The Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the bombing, the first attack on an Israeli naval vessel since a Palestinian uprising began in September 2000.
The 20-metre coastal patrol craft, armed with 20mm cannon and 12.7mm machine guns, was patrolling the coastline separating the Gaza Strip from Israel overnight when it intercepted the fishing boat.
The Israeli army said four sailors were wounded, three moderately, when the fishing boat blew up as the patrol boat approached to warn it to turn back.
The attack was reminiscent of the bombing of the USS Cole. The US destroyer was attacked by suicide bombers who rammed a boat loaded with explosives into the ship off the coastline of Yemen in October 2000, killing 17 crew.
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organisation is believed to have been behind that attack. Islamic Jihad said in a statement that today's attack was carried out by the group's armed "Jerusalem Brigades", which has been behind a series of suicide bombings against Israelis.
The army said it had imposed a complete ban on Palestinian fishing boats plying waters off the Gaza Strip coastline following the bombing.