As the Altalena approached the Mediterranean coast of Israel, nearing the beach of Kfar Vitkin, then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion ordered the IDF to shell the ship carrying about 900 Jewish immigrants and a massive stockpile of ammunition for the Irgun.

The dispute arose because Ben-Gurion wanted to unify the different military factions into one state army, while Menachem Begin wanted to reserve some weaponry for separate Irgun units.

Begin, who boarded the ship after it arrived and remained aboard to manage the tense negotiations between the factions, ordered his men not to fire on their fellow Jews, a decision that remained his enduring legacy, pulling the nascent Jewish state from the brink of civil war.

When the IDF fired on the Altalena, the cache of weapons ignited, forcing everyone aboard, including Begin, to abandon the ship. Now, divers have found the wreck of the ship, but at 503 meters deep, it is too deep to be pulled out intact.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu announced the discovery Monday in a joint statement, calling the mission “a complex maritime search operation” that took “long months of meticulous planning and preparation” and “special sensors and advanced survey systems.” The Marine Mapping Division of the Survey of Israel led the team in finding this significant piece of history.

“The locating of the Altalena is an exciting historical moment, in which knowledge, technology and advanced mapping capabilities allow us to touch on a significant chapter in the history of the State of Israel,” said Hagai Ronen, the agency’s director-general.

The Heritage Ministry is considering different ways to mark the discovery, such as placing a floating marker above the location of the shipwreck and also documenting the discovery underwater.