Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies revealed that Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested 125 fishermen while fishing off Gaza shores in 2016.
The spokesman of the Center Riyad al-Ashqar said that the number of fishermen arrested in 2016 demonstrates a big increase compared to the number of fishermen arrested in 2015 which was only 52.
Israeli forces usually and deliberately destroy and sometimes torch Gazans’ fishing equipment by opening machinegun fire intensively at their fishing boats and sometimes confiscate their tools. Three fishermen were injured before being arrested he added.
Al-Ashqar highlighted that Israeli forces intend to blackmail Gazan fishermen in order to forcibly make them work for the Israeli intelligence.
