Why was Israel spared scrutiny for the 1967 USS Liberty attack?
Key takeaways
- US Representative Thomas Massie set to honour the crew of the vessel on the House floor, bringing attention to the 1967 attack.
- Israel claimed it was a case of mistaken identity, saying its naval forces thought the vessel was Egyptian.
- So what do we know about one of the most controversial chapters of the US Navy?
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
US Representative Thomas Massie set to honour the crew of the vessel on the House floor, bringing attention to the 1967 attack.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo. The technical research ship USS Liberty arrives at Valletta, Malta, having been attacked by Israeli aircraft and torpedo vessels in the Mediterranean, June 8, 1967 [File: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images]By Al Jazeera Staff Published On 8 Jun 20268 Jun 2026On June 8, 1967, at least 34 US sailors were killed and 171 others were wounded in an Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, a United States Navy technical research ship stationed in the Mediterranean Sea off Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Israel claimed it was a case of mistaken identity, saying its naval forces thought the vessel was Egyptian. But some of the survivors and researchers have disputed the Israeli version of the incident. They lament that successive governments did little to bring out the truth behind one of the deadliest attacks on the US Navy by its closest ally, Israel.