Israel locates ‘Altalena’ shipwreck off coast, 78 years later

Israel located the Altalena off the country’s Mediterranean coast 78 years after its sinking, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu announced on Monday, calling the find historic.

“At 12:30 a.m., at a depth of 503 meters [1,650 feet] west of Israel’s coast, the Altalena was located intact—78 years after the painful, formative event that shook the young State of Israel,” Eliyahu wrote in a social media statement.

The announcement was made jointly with Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said in a post on X that “there is a message in finding the Altalena at this particular time. Disagreements are permissible, and differences of opinion are permissible—but a civil war must never be allowed.”

The newly created Israel Defense Forces shelled the Irgun arms ship off the Tel Aviv beach in June 1948. Sixteen Irgun members and three IDF soldiers were killed in the fighting. About a year after the battle, the Altalena, which had run aground at the foot of Frischman Street, was refloated, towed 15 miles out to sea and scuttled.

Israel’s Heritage Ministry invested 1 million shekels (about $296,000) to search for the remains, JNS reported on Aug. 25, 2025.

The ministry hired the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute, through the Survey of Israel—a state agency responsible for mapping—to locate the remains of the ship. Israel’s national research vessel, the Bat Galim, was deployed with advanced technology to detect the wreckage.

The “Altalena Affair” unfolded during Israel’s 1948-49 War of Independence after the Irgun ship arrived off the coast carrying Jewish immigrants, fighters and a cache of weapons intended for the underground group led by future prime minister Menachem Begin. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion ordered all of the arms transferred to the newly established IDF as part of his effort to consolidate military authority under the new state. When the Irgun resisted, clashes erupted at Kfar Vitkin and later off Tel Aviv, where IDF troops under Yitzhak Rabin shelled the vessel. Begin ordered Irgun members not to return fire, seeking to avert a civil war.

“As heritage minister, I see this as a formative moment in our national memory,” Eliyahu said. “A country that is not afraid to confront the painful chapters of its history is a stronger country. A people that knows its past—its heroism and its pain—can build a more united and secure future.”