The Hamas-led Interior Ministry in Gaza said Thursday that three Palestinian fishermen killed in a Palestinian fissure blast had been hit by an Israeli drone loaded with explosives that fell into the sea and flew into a net.
An Israeli military spokesman did not immediately return calls seeking comment. At the time of the blast on Sunday, the Israeli military denied any involvement.
The incident comes at a time when Palestinian militants are testing rockets at sea and the Gaza-based human rights organization, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, said on Sunday that the fishing boat could be the victim of an accident.
But Gaza Interior Ministry spokesman Ayad al-Bozom said no Palestinian rocket fishing boats were spotted, and parts of Israeli quadcopter drones were found in its nets. The drone flew as fishermen were raising their nets and all three were killed.
Bozme said the drone had been in the water since the Israeli attack on the Palestinian navy from Gaza on February 22.
The Israeli military said its forces at the time noted suspicious naval activity off the coast of Gaza and, without elaborating on the weapons used, thwarted a “potential threat to Israeli naval vessels.”
The Israeli military rarely comments publicly about the use of explosive-carrying drones.
The Islamist militant group Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, and the coastal strip, home to 20 million Palestinians, is then under blockade by Israel and Egypt, citing security concerns for the move.
