The Israeli navy abducted, after midnight Wednesday, five Palestinian fishermen including a child and seized their fishing boat off the northern coast of the besieged Gaza Strip, local sources reported.
After midnight, on the al-Waha shore, northwest of Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Israeli Navy boats surrounded a Palestinian fishing boat that was sailing within the limits set for fishing by the occupation.
The Navy abducted all five fishermen aboard and confiscated the fishing boat belonging to fisherman Omar Ibrahim al-Habeel, 70.
Israeli forces abducted 5 fishermen including a minor, they were identified as; Mohammed Omar al-Habeel, 37, his son Omar, 16, Jihad Mahmoud al-Habeel, 24, Hasan Fadel Baker, 36, and Sadam Majed Baker, 32.
PCHR documented that Israeli forces “ordered the fishermen to take their clothes off, jump into the water and swim towards the gunboat,” before abducting them and taking them to the Ashdod Seaport.
Israeli occupation authorities restrict the allowable fishing zone from 6 to 12 nautical miles off the coast, and regularly harass, injure, and abduct fishermen and confiscate their boats.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has repeatedly condemned Israel’s actions against the Palestinian fishermen in Gaza are a “grave breach of all international conventions and instruments, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.”
Furthermore, the Israeli navy fired, on Tuesday, rubber-coated steel rounds and tear gas canisters at Palestinian fishing boats in the Sudaniyya Sea area, northwest of Gaza City, shooting and injuring one man with a rubber-coated steel bullet.
Since the beginning of 2023, PCHR has documented injury of 10 fishermen and arrest of 15 others. Also, 7 fishing boats have been confiscated and damaged.
