The Israeli occupation navy on Friday morning kidnapped four Palestinian fishermen as they were working on their boat off the northern coast of the Gaza Strip.
Chief of the fishermen committees Zakariya Baker told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that Israeli gunboats encircled a fishing boat in the northern waters of Gaza opened fire around it and forced them to undress and jump into the waters.
Then naval soldiers took them in handcuffs to a bigger gunboat and towed their fishing boat to Ashdod port Baker added.
The detained fishermen are Yaser and Tamer Salman (brothers) Walid Muhsen and Yusri Zakariya.
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.
