Israel’s naval forces on Sunday morning kidnapped five Palestinian fishermen as they were working off the northern coast of the Gaza Strip.
Eyewitnesses told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that the Israeli navy rounded up five fishermen and confiscated their boats after intercepting them off the northern shores of Gaza.
The fishermen were identified as Naser Fadel Hasan Fadel Yaser Naser Ahmed Naser and Fadel Naser. All of them are relatives from the family of Baker.
Israeli 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 of 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.
According to a local report the Israeli navy detained last year 2017 39 fishermen and released them later.
14 of those fishermen who were arrested last year suffered bullet injuries when the navy opened fire at their boats. Another two fishermen were also killed.
