GAZA, May 31, 2016 (WAFA) – Israeli naval boats Tuesday opened their machine gunfire on Palestinian farmers offshore Gaza city, according to WAFA correspondent.
Israeli navy soldiers opened heavy machine gunfire on Palestinian fishermen’s boats offshore al-Sudaniya area to the north-west of Gaza city, causing financial damages to at least one boat.
Other Israeli navy forces targeted Palestinian fishermen’s boats with a barrage of gunfire offshore Deir al-Balah area, in the central of the Gaza Strip.
All attacks took place within the 6-nautical miles permitted fishing zone.
No injuries were reported among the fishermen, who were forced to return back to shore for fear of being detained, injured, or killed.
Israeli navy targets Gaza fishermen almost on a daily basis, in a blatant breach of a ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and armed Palestinian groups in august 2014, following 51 days of bloody aggression on the Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of over 2.200 Palestinians, mostly civilians.
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), all Israeli attacks on Palestinian fishermen have taken place within the distance of six nautical miles, which it said “proves that Israeli forces‘ policies aim to tighten restrictions on the Gaza Strip‘s fishermen and their livelihoods.”
While Israeli authorities last month expanded the fishing zone designated for Palestinian fishermen to nine nautical miles in the southern Gaza Strip, and retained the six mile zone in the north, fishermen regularly report detentions, live fire, and boat confiscation within these s.
Meanwhile, six Israeli military vehicles, including four armoured tanks and two bulldozers, infiltrated Gaza borders and went nearly 100 miles into Palestinian-owned agricultural land to the north of Beit Lahya, razing the land and randomly firing live ammunition and smoke bombs during the incursion.
Since 2005, Israel unilaterally imposed a 300-meter-wide buffer zone into the border with Gaza, sharply affecting the livelihood of tens of thousands of Gaza farmers, who rely heavily on agriculture to provide for their families.
As of 2010, UN-OCHA estimated that 35 percent of Gaza‘s agricultural land is located in restricted-access areas, affecting the lives and livelihoods of approximately 113,000 people.
Farmers in farmland on the borders say their situation has only worsened since the last war ended in 2014 summer, pointing to the Israeli military‘s frequent incursions into their land and its practice of firing live ammunition at farmers who enter the ‘buffer zone‘ between Gaza and Israel.
Israel continues to breach a ceasefire deal reached with the Palestinian side on August 26, 2014, following 51 days of deadly aggression on the strip, which claimed the lives of over 2,200 Gaza refugees, overwhelmingly civilians.
T.R.
