Israel Pays Further Compensation for Attack on ‘liberty’, Latest Receipt $3,566,457

The State Department announced today that United States Government has just received $3,566,457 from Israel in settlement of claims arising from the attack by Israeli jets and torpedo boats on the electronic intelligence ship USS Liberty on June 8,1967 at the height of the Six-Day War. The sum of $3,323,500 was paid by Israel to the U.S. on May 31, 1968 on behalf of the families of 34 men killed in the attack some 13.6 miles off the Sinai coast.

The new compensation represents mainly payments to the members of the crew who were wounded. The amount, received by the U.S., paid on April 28, 1969, covered the following U.S. claims: $3,452,275 for 164 claims on behalf of the 75 injured crewmen; $92,437 for expenses incurred by the U.S. Government in providing medical treatment to the wounded; and $21,745 for expenses incurred by the U.S. for personal property damaged or destroyed for which crewmen were compensated.

Distribution of the money received from Israel to the injured sailors is now In progress, the State Department said. The only unsettled claims arising from the attack on the Liberty are for damages to the vessel itself. They remain under discussion. The ship was so badly damaged that a decision was made to deactivate it, officials said. Israel apologized for the attack which it called accidental. A U.S. Navy board of inquiry claimed that Israel had ample time to identify the ship correctly. According to testimony given before the House Defense Appropriations sub-committee, a Joint Chiefs of Staff message ordering naval vessels to avoid the battle area was sent from the Pentagon before the Liberty was attacked, but through a series of misrouting errors, it never reached the Liberty.