Israeli navy ships attacked, Sunday, several fishing boats in Palestinian territorial waters along the coastal line in northern Gaza.
The WAFA Palestinian News Agency said the navy fired many live rounds at the boats, and sprayed them with water cannons, forcing the fishermen back to shore.
Earlier Sunday, the navy fired many live rounds at Palestinian fishing boats in central Gaza, also forcing the fishermen to sail back to shore, in fear of further Israeli violations.
Last month, Israeli unilaterally decreased the fishing zone to the fishermen in Gaza from six to three nautical miles, also until further notice.
In late February of this year, the navy killed a Palestinian fisherman, identified as Ismael Saleh Abu Ryala, 18, from Shati’ refugee camp, west of Gaza city.
There are more than 4000 fishers and around 700 boats in the Gaza Strip providing livelihood to at least 70.000 Palestinians, while the Israeli military and navy keep attacking them, kidnapping them and confiscating their boats, in addition to the dozens of casualties, including fatalities, resulting from these violations.
It is worth mentioning that, under the Oslo Peace Agreement, signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, the fishing zone was set at twenty nautical miles, where the Palestinians are supposed to be able to fish and sail, but Israel kept violating the agreement.
In the year 2000, the number of fishermen in Gaza was around 10.000.
