A secret meeting between Mossad and Italian intelligence personnel that ended in tragedy when the boat they were on capsized earlier this week was held with the purpose of preventing Tehran from obtaining advanced unconventional weapons, the Italian La Repubblica newspaper reported over the weekend.
Four people were killed when the yacht sank, including one former Mossad agent and two Italian intelligence agents. The wife of the ship’s captain also died.
The ill-fated yacht carried a total of 24 individuals at the time that it capsized, including two crew members and 22 passengers.
Among them were 10 Israeli intelligence officers and several Italian officers, both active and retired.
Initial reports had said the group had gathered to commemorate a birthday but other reports later said it was a high level intelligence meeting.
The New York Times quoted a senior Israeli security official as saying that it was “neither a birthday party nor a vacation. Without going into details, it was related to [the Mossad agent’s] work, and it is very sad we lost such a man,” and added that the victim also worked to connect Israel with spy agencies around the world.
After the vessel capsized, the Israeli team and their Italian counterparts swam to the shore and were promptly rescued. Alongside the Mossad agent, three other people, including two Italian intelligence officers, lost their lives in the incident.
The ten surviving Israeli agents were whisked on an emergency military flight back to Israel.
The Italian intelligence agents were secretly transferred out of the hospitals they had arrived at in an attempt to keep their identities hidden, Italian media reported.
