JERUSALEM: Sappers on Saturday recovered debris from a rocket that hit the water off Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat two days earlier, after being alerted by civilian divers, the military said.
"After verification, the device found by the two civilian divers turned out to be a 122 mm rocket," a military spokesman said.
The civilians reported finding the rocket after two projectiles hit in and near the adjacent Jordanian port of Aqaba on Thursday.
"Two divers told the army they had seen what appeared to be a rocket on the seabed," an Israeli spokesman said earlier. The army sealed off a nearby beach and sent sappers to the scene.
Two military-grade rockets struck Jordan early on Thursday, one slamming into an empty warehouse in Aqaba and the other splashing into the sea near the Israeli border, a Jordanian security official said.
"The preliminary investigation determined that the explosion in the port of Aqaba on Thursday morning was due to a Katyusha rocket," the security official said, citing sources close to investigators.
"A second Katyusha rocket was found in Jordanian territorial waters," he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Jordanian Prime Minister Samir Rifai later said the authorities were "100 percent sure" the rocket that hit the warehouse was a Grad-type projectile, rather than a Katyusha.
Jordanian authorities said they were investigating whether the target of the rocket attack was Aqaba or Eilat, less than 10 kilometres along the coast.
In August 2005, three Katyusha rockets were fired in Aqaba, missing two US warships docked in the port. One hit a warehouse, killing a Jordanian soldier, while another struck across the border in Israel.
That attack was claimed by a group linked to Al-Qaeda.
