The Israeli occupation navy on Wednesday morning opened machinegun fire at Palestinian fishermen and their boats off the northern shores of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli gunboats opened fire at and chased fishing boats in the northern waters of Gaza prompting them to return ashore.
Three Palestinian fishermen suffered injuries yesterday and their boat sustained some damage when Israeli naval forces attacked them off the shores of Gaza.
On Monday naval forces also rounded up three Gazan fishermen and confiscated the boat they were aboard.
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 shore.
