The Israeli occupation navy on Thursday morning kidnapped two fishermen and confiscated their boat off the northern coast of the besieged Gaza Strip.

According to the local fishermen committees Israeli forces aboard a gunboat kidnapped the fishermen after opening fire at their boat as they were fishing within three nautical miles off the shore of as-Sudaniya area in northern Gaza.

The naval forces also towed the fishing boat to Ashdod port near Gaza.

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.

The Israeli occupation navy on Saturday morning kidnapped two Palestinian fishermen during their presence off the coast of Gaza City.

Chief of the fishermen Nizar Ayyash told Quds Press that the brothers Mohamed and Atef Abu Riyala were kidnapped after Israeli naval forces opened machinegun fire near their fishing boat which was also confiscated.

Ayyash added that the fishermen were working within four nautical miles from the shore of Gaza City.

Meanwhile Israeli soldiers opened fire at a group of Palestinian citizens in a border area to the east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza with no reported injuries.

GAZA (PIC)– The Israeli occupation navy on Saturday evening kidnapped two Palestinian fishermen working off the coast of the Gaza Strip.

Dean of the Gazan fishermen Nizar Ayyash said that 33-year-old Hatem al-Sultan and 25-year-old Mohamed al-Sultan were taken prisoners as they were fishing off the shores of Gaza city.

The Israeli army claimed that the Palestinian boat had exceeded the six nautical miles allowed for fishing.

The Israeli side accepted following the last war on Gaza to allow Gaza fishermen to work within six nautical miles instead of three; however it has kept attacking them inside the agreed distance since then.