A helicopter goes down by the Israeli shore killing four passengers, reports say, as investigators look into the cause of the incident.

The civilian aircraft crashed into the eastern Mediterranean on Tuesday near the central Israeli city of Netanya after taking off from Tel Aviv, AFP reported.

"The bodies of two civilians were recovered from the water," read the rescue team's statement on the incident near the central Israeli city of Netanya. Two more bodies were found several hours later, it said.

Israeli news website Ynet quoted the rescue team as saying that the mortalities were tourists including an English national.

The cause of the crash is yet to be discovered.

HN/AKM