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The Italian media outlet La Republica reports that the recent meeting between Israeli and Italian intelligence officials was intended to track unconventional weapons in hostile Middle East countries.

The meeting was held on a yacht in Italy, and ended in tragedy as the yacht sank, injuring several of those on board and killing a former Mossad agent who was part of the gathering.

According to Kan, Italian authorities have worked to recover the yacht in its entirety with the help of maritime salvage equipment. Italian media reports that the Italian officials were taken out of hospital care in secret to conceal their identities from the public and that the Israelis injured in the incident were returned to Israel on a private flight.

The New York Times quoted a senior security official as saying that, contrary to the original report of the incident, the meeting was "neither a birthday party nor a vacation. Without going into details, it was related to his work, and it is very sad we lost such a man." TheNew York Times further reported that the victim was responsible for connecting Israel to other intelligence services around the world.

Dr. Carlo Nazareno, the Italian official supervising the investigation of the incident, explains that the investigation is unlikely to focus on the identities or activities of the victims. "We are investigating two crimes: causing an accident through negligence, and causing a death through negligence. That the Israelis involved were Mossad agents is unimportant to us."

Dr. Nazareno expects this to be the case even after the wreck is recovered, saying that it is being salvaged mainly to investigate whether it was fit to sail with as many people as were on board at the time.