"A boat carrying a number of AK-47 assault rifles, magazines and additional weaponry was apprehended earlier today by the IDF and the Israel police,", a statement from the army said, describing it as an attempt to smuggle weapons into the Palestinian territories.officials said.

The boat was carrying a number of Kalashnikov assault rifles, magazines and other weapons, the statement said, adding police were questioning two men, both of them Palestinians.

The Dead Sea is the lowest place in the world, with its eastern shores bordering Jordan, while its western shores border Israel and the West Bank.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP the boat had come from Jordan and said the two men on board were Bedouin, although he did not say whether they were of Jordanian or Palestinian origin.

"There is an ongoing police investigation involving a number of arms that were attempted to be smuggled from Jordan," he told AFP. "Two suspects have been arrested and are being questioned. The arrests were made this morning and a number of weapons were confiscated."

Israel's army radio said the vessel was a dinghy that had come from Jordan and was trying to traffic arms into the West Bank.

Very few vessels are able to sail on the inland lake. Due to the density of the water -- the Dead Sea has a salt and mineral content which is seven times more concentrated than sea water -- boats float very high and run a considerable risk of capsizing.

It was not the first time the army has stopped a boat containing weapons on the Dead Sea, although such attempts are very rare.
In October 2006, Israeli troops thwarted an attempt to smuggle weapons and drugs from Jordan into Israel via the Dead Sea.

A military patrol spotted an inflatable craft approaching from Jordan and gave chase, arresting the two men on board -- an Israeli Bedouin from Khirbet Khasif in the southern Negev desert, and a Palestinian resident of Jordan.

Months later, media reports said the navy had started looking into the possibility of organising regular patrols on the sea in an bid to prevent the infiltration of people and weapons from Jordan into the Palestinian territories.

The Dead Sea stretches along a 70-kilometre (43-mile) stretch of the border and because of its high salinity, tests were being conducted to examine what kind of patrol vessel could withstand erosion from the salt, the reports said.