ISRAELI NAVAL BOATS OPEN FIRE ON GAZA FISHERMAN

Gaza, 5 Jumadil Awwal 1436/24 February 2015 (MINA) – Israeli naval boats opened fire Tuesday morning on Palestinian fishing boats offshore Gaza.

Israeli naval boats indiscriminately opened heavy gunfire on fishermen in their vulnerable wooden boats offshore al-Sudaniya, located to the northwest of Gaza, causing damage to a boat.

No injuries were reported among the fisherman who were forced to sail back to the shore, Wafa News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Israeli naval boats routinely open fire on Palestinian fisherman sailing within the six-nautical-miles zone and farmlands along the border, blatantly violating the ceasefire deal.

Israel and the Palestinian factions inked a ceasefire deal on August 26, ending the latest 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 fisherman within the fishing zone and reducing their intake.

It 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 fisherman in the 1993 Oslo Accords.(T/P008/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)