IOF attacks fishermen in southern Gaza

According to local sources, Israeli gunboats fired machine guns, water cannons and tear gas canisters at fishing boats and tried to sink them during their presence within a few nautical miles off the shores of Khan Yunis and Rafah in southern Gaza.

No one was reportedly hurt in the attack, which forced the fishermen to return ashore.

Israeli naval forces and their gunboats are around Gaza fishermen almost every day, harassing them, shooting at them, damaging their boats, and making arrests. Sometimes fishermen are injured or killed during gunfire attacks.

Under the 1993 Oslo accords, Palestinian fishermen are permitted to fish up to 20 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, but since then Israel has kept reducing the fishing area gradually to a limit between six to three nautical miles as part of its blockade on Gaza.

Fishermen and human rights groups also say that since the 2008-09 war in Gaza, the Israeli army has been regularly enforcing a limit even closer to the shores.