On December 18, 1980, the Department of State announced that the United States Government had accepted the proposal by the Government of Israel to pay $6 million in three annual installments of $2 million each, beginning on January 15, 1981, as final settlement of U.S. claims arising out of an unprovoked attack upon the Liberty on June 8, 1967, by Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats in international waters in the eastern Mediterranean. The attack occurred while the ship was some 20 miles off the Sinai coast during the Six-Day War.