The Israeli navy, Saturday, again opened machine gun fire on Palestinian fishermen offshore the al-Sudaniya, to the northwest of Gaza.According to WAFA correspondence, Israeli naval boats indiscriminately opened heavy gunfire on fishermen sailing within the unilaterally-imposed six-nautical-miles fishing zone offshore al-Sudaniya, causing damages to at least one boat.
No injuries were reported among the fishermen who fled the scene for fear of being injured, killed, or arrested.
Israeli naval boats routinely open fire on Palestinian fishermen sailing within the six-nautical-miles zone and farmlands along the border, flagrantly violating the ceasefire deal.
Israel and the Palestinian factions inked a ceasefire deal on August 26, ending the latest 2014 summer deadly Israeli onslaught on Gaza that claimed the lives of over 2,200 people, overwhelmingly civilians.
The ceasefire deal stipulated that Israel would immediately ease the blockade imposed on the strip and expand the fishing zone off Gaza’s coast, allowing fishermen to sail as far as six nautical miles from shore, and would continue to expand the area gradually.
Israel has, however, failed to do so, repeatedly violating the ceasefire deal through opening fire on Palestinian fishermen within the fishing zone and reducing their intake.
Continuing the Cairo-brokered talks on the other key issues was repeatedly postponed in the wake of November attacks against Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula.
Israel has imposed a tightened blockade since 2007, after Hamas won the democratic legislative elections and took over power in the Strip.
The current six-nautical-mile fishing zone falls drastically short of the twenty nautical miles allocated to Palestinian fishermen in the 1993 Oslo Accords.
For further information see: imemc.org/article/70688
