The Israeli naval forces on Tuesday morning kidnapped a Palestinian fisherman and his son and confiscated their boats off the northern coast of the besieged Gaza Strip.

Chief of the fishermen Nazzar Ayyash told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that the Israeli occupation state inaugurated the new year by kidnapping two fishermen.

The fishermen are Issa al-Sharafi 60 and his son Mahmoud and they were kidnapped as they were on their boat off the shore of al-Sudaniya area in northern Gaza.

Ayyash said that the Israeli navy also seized the fishermen’s boat and fishing equipment.

The Israeli navy had arrested about 40 Palestinian fishermen off the coast of Gaza and confiscated more than 25 boats during 2018.

Israeli naval forces on Saturday morning kidnapped two Palestinian fishermen off the northern shores of the Gaza Strip after opening fire at them.

A local committee documenting Israeli violations against fishermen said that Israeli gunboats opened fire at and intercepted a rowboat within two nautical miles from the northern coast of Gaza and rounded up two fishermen aboard it.

The detained fishermen are two brothers identified as Safwat and Rif’at Zayed.

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.