JERUSALEM, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Thursday that Israel had purchased four warships, reportedly to help secure its off-shore gas fields.
"I am pleased to announce that three days ago we added an important component to our defensive force. We purchased four new Saar vessels." Netanyahu said during the Israeli Air Force pilots' course graduation ceremony.
"The State of Israel is building our defense force year by year, from decade to decade, with planes, submarine, air defense systems like Iron Dome and the Arrow missile, and with some of the most sophisticated offensive weapons in the world," he said.
Reports in the local media has indicated that Israel will use the new Sa'ar-class vessels to protect its newly found Tamar and Leviathan gas fields from possible terror attacks and Hezbollah rocket fire.
Netanyahu also thanked Chancellor Angela Merkel "for her commitment and constant assistance to our security."
According to the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, the German government contributed 115 million euros to the estimated 1 billion euros deal.
Germany is emerging as Israel's top navy supplier, after it delivered the Jewish state a fourth Dolphin-class submarine in September.
Germany often subsidizes defense projects in Israel as part of its atonement for the Nazi Holocaust during the Second World War.
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