Is it older than Israel?

In November 1940 the British were preparing to deport some 1,800 Jewish refugees who had reached Haifa without permits to Mauritius, aboard the French liner Patria. The Haganah decided to disable the ship with a bomb so that it could not sail. The charge was too large. On 25 November it blew a hole in the hull and the Patria sank in Haifa harbour in a quarter of an hour. Between 260 and 267 people died, most of them the refugees the Haganah had meant to keep in Palestine.

The Haganah did not acknowledge the bombing until years later. The survivors were allowed to stay.