On the spies – Elisabetta Povoledo and Ronen Bergman in NYT:

‘The two female victims were found trapped inside the charter boat, which sank to a depth of about 50 feet. A third victim was found on the bottom of the lake, while another had been recovered floating.
“It was terrifying seeing all those people in the water — it seemed like a scene from a film. I still have a hard time believing it was true,” he said. “If we hadn’t come by, I think they would have all died,” he said.
Paolo Mazzucchelli, the director for public transportation on Lake Maggiore, said that at the moment the accident took place, “Wind speed had grown very quickly in a very short period of time,” and that the storm was “localized and very intense.” “They found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said.’

Read the article here.

So just bad luck, but not an ordinary spy party. According to this article the reason for the gathering was an ‘an operation against Iranian activity’.

‘The boat full of Israeli and Italian intelligence agents was actually a dinner celebrating the mission's success, ending in a tragic motorboat accident which saw Erez Shimoni – the cover name given to the deceased – die while trying to save other drowning passengers.’

What successful operation against ‘Iranian non-conventional weapons capabilities’ did we miss?