Israeli gunboats on Saturday morning attacked Palestinian fishermen and their boats off the coast of Gaza City.

According to local sources gunboats opened machinegun fire at fishing boats as they were working off the shores of Gaza City and forced them to return ashore.

No casualties or material damage have been reported during the shooting attack.

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.

GAZA (PIC)– Israeli gunboats on Saturday evening opened machinegun fire at Palestinian fishermen and their boats off the coast of Beit Lahiya district north of the besieged Gaza Strip.

The coastal police in Gaza said that the fishermen were attacked as they were working within the permitted six-nautical-mile fishing zone.

They added that the shooting was so intensive and forced the fishing boats to return ashore pointing out that no one was hurt in the attack.

Gunfire attacks on fishermen farmers and civilians in Gaza have become part of routine violations since Israel accepted an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreement in 2014.