After 21 days in arbitrary detention the Israeli occupation army on Tuesday evening released a Palestinian fisherman who was kidnapped by its naval forces from aboard his boat off the coast of Beit Lahia north of the Gaza Strip.
Local sources said that the fisherman Yousef Abu Warda arrived at the Beit Hanoun (Erez) border crossing after his release from an Israeli jail.
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 even 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. 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 on Gaza the Israeli army regularly enforces a limit even closer to the shore.
