The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacked on Monday morning Palestinian fishermen and their boats off the northern and central shores of the besieged Gaza Strip and forced them to return ashore.
According to local sources Israeli gunboats intensively fired machine guns and tear gas canisters at fishing boats during their presence within a few nautical miles off the coast of as-Sudaniya and al-Waha areas in northern Gaza.
Meanwhile fishermen working off the shores of an-Nuseirat and az-Zawaida areas in central Gaza were also exposed to a similar IOF attack.
No one was reportedly hurt in the IOF attack.
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.