There was a little incident at sea:

Israel denied Tuesday that one of its patrol boats deliberately rammed a civilian pleasure boat trying to deliver relief supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip.

The 60-foot boat suffered damage in the encounter in the Mediterranean Sea, but made it to the Lebanese port of Tyre without assistance, CNN reported.

The boat, christened Dignity, carried 16 crew members and passengers; many of them volunteer medical personnel, and a cargo of medical supplies. They intended to help out with casualties caused by days of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

The organizers of the Dignity’s trip accused an Israeli patrol boat of deliberately ramming the vessel in international waters, but Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the Dignity’s skipper was steering erratically as the patrol boat moved in.

“There is no intention on the part of the Israeli navy to ram anybody,” spokesman Yigal Palmor said.

Unfortunately for Yigal Palmor, there was a CNN correspondent on board the Dignity:

CNN Correspondent Karl Penhaul was aboard the 60-foot, Gibraltar-registered pleasure boat Dignity when the contact occurred. When the boat later docked in the Lebanese port city of Tyre, severe damage was visible to the forward port side of the boat, and the front left window and part of the roof had collapsed.

The Dignity was carrying crew and 16 passengers — physicians from Britain, Germany and Cyprus and human rights activists, including former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney — who were trying to reach Gaza through an Israeli blockade of the territory.

The captain of the Dignity said the Israelis broadcast a radio message accusing the vessel of being involved in terrorist activity. But Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denied that and said the radio message simply warned the vessel not to proceed to Gaza because it is a closed military area.

Palmor said there was no response to the radio message, and the vessel then tried to out-maneuver the Israeli patrol boat, leading to the collision.

Penhaul said at least two Israeli patrol boats had shadowed the Dignity for about half an hour before the collision, moving around the vessel on all sides. One of the patrol boats then shined its spotlight on the Dignity while the other, with its lights off, “very severely rammed” the boat.

No intention on the part of the Israeli navy to ram anybody, huh? Just like the Israeli military is extraordinarily careful to minimize civilian casualties (pdf, from AIPAC).