The Israeli navy on Monday morning kidnapped two Palestinian fishermen and confiscated the boat they were aboard off the northwestern shore of Gaza City.
Local sources told WAFA news agency that Israeli gunboats started to open machinegun fire around fishing boats as they were working within four nautical miles off the coast of al-Sudaniya area to the north of Gaza City.
They added that Israeli navy soldiers rounded up two men aboard one of the fishing boats and then towed it to the nearby Israeli port of Ashdod.
The identities of the two detained fishermen are still unknown.
Israeli gunboats are around Gaza fishermen almost every day harassing them shooting at them damaging their boats and making arrests. Sometimes fishermen are killed or injured during gunfire attacks.
Under the 1993 Oslo accords Palestinian fishermen are permitted to fish up to 20 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza. Over the past 18 years however Israel has reduced the fishing area gradually to a limit of three nautical miles as part of its blockade on Gaza.
But fishermen and human rights groups say that since the 2008-09 war in Gaza the Israeli army regularly enforces a limit even closer to the shore.
