The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacked on Monday morning Palestinian fishermen and their boats off the coast of the embattled Gaza Strip forcing them to return ashore.

According to local sources Israeli gunboats encircled a number of fishing boats off the shores of Khan Yunis and Rafah in southern Gaza and opened machinegun fire at them.

A similar IOF attack on fishermen happened off the shore of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.

No one was reportedly hurt in the shooting attacks.

Recently there has been a sharp rise in attacks on fishermen by the Israeli occupation navy in Gaza waters.

In a separate incident the IOF carried out in the morning a small-scale incursion into a border area in the central Gaza Strip.

According to local sources several armored bulldozers escorted by Merkava tanks advanced from a military post into an agricultural area in the east of Deir al-Balah City in central Gaza.

Amid drone overflights the heavy machinery embarked on making mounds of dirt and leveling and digging swaths of agricultural land which are located several meters away from the border fence.

The border areas of Gaza are repeatedly exposed to Israeli military incursions and gunfire attacks which are seen as violations of the ceasefire understandings brokered between the Palestinian resistance and Israel.

Gaza farmers complain that such Israeli military incursions and gunfire attacks on the border always cause considerable damage to their crops and prevent them from working their lands.

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacked on Wednesday evening Palestinian fishermen and their boats off the northern coast of the besieged Gaza Strip and forced them to return ashore.

According to the fishermen syndicate Israeli gunboats opened machinegun fire at fishing boats during their presence within a few nautical miles off the shores of different areas in northern Gaza.

Recently there has been a sharp rise in attacks on fishermen by the Israeli occupation navy in Gaza waters.

Fishermen and their syndicate have been reporting for a while an uptick in the number of boat seizures gunfire incidents arrests and assaults on fishermen including children.

Such Israeli restrictions in Gaza’s territorial waters curtail fishermen’s ability to fish and make a living to support their families.

Israel’s decades of control over Gaza’s territorial waters have had an adverse impact on the lives and livelihoods of fishermen their families and others in the fishing sector and on the economy as a whole.