Palestinian sources said that the Israeli navy targeted a small Palestinian boat near Al-Nussirat, killing four men and wounding a fifth who went missing. Two others, including a high profile leader, survived the attack. Witnesses said they saw Israeli combat helicopters and naval forces firing intensely on a vessel off the coast south of Gaza City.

Medical sources identified the four as Fayiz Al-Firi, 21, Mohammed Qweidr, 34, Ibrahim Al-Waheidi, 25, and Hamid Thabet, 20. All of the men’s bodies were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Ballah.

"An Israeli naval patrol spotted a boat with four men in diving suits on their way to carry out a terror attack and fired at them," an Israeli army spokesman claimed. He did not say what the army thought the Palestinian divers were aiming to do.

Al-Aqsa Brigades said in a statement that the four men were part of its marine unit, but insisted they were merely on a training mission and were not planning to carry out an attack.

Israeli media has reported that the raid on the Palestinian vessel was carried out by the same military unit that boarded the Gaza Freedom Flotilla last week.

Meanwhile, one man was inured in an Israeli air strike on the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip and a second man was injured by Israeli soldiers firing near the Erez crossing on Monday morning.

Witnesses and local media reports said that an Israeli drone fired a missile at a group of Palestinian people east of Jabaliya. But Israeli military sources said the air strike targeted a "terrorist squad preparing to fire homemade rockets into Israel."

Witnesses at the Erez crossing said they saw a man collecting cement particles at the Gaza border near the crossing. The man was then shot by Israeli soldiers. The incident was later confirmed by Palestinian medical sources. They identified the wounded man as Adham Al-Kafarneh, 45.