Israeli navy opens fire at fishermen off Gaza coast

Days of Palestine, Gaza Strip -Israeli occupation navy opened fire on Tuesday morning at Palestinian fishermen off the Gaza coast, no casualties reported.
Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli occupation navy opened fire at the fishermen in two different places along the coasts.
The sources reported no casualties in the incident, but they said that two fishing boats were partially damaged and were towed to the shore.
Fishermen told Days of Palestine that the Israeli navy opened fire at them while they were sailing within the six-mile limit. They said they sailed back to the shore, fearing additional escalation.
It is worth mentioning that the Israeli occupation authorities reduced fishing zone from nine nautical miles to six miles just two months after they claimed they had expanded it from six to nine miles.

- See more at: http://www.daysofpalestine.com/news/israeli-navy-opens-fire-fishermen-gaza-coast/#sthash.d4xpts7k.dpuf


It is also worth noting that the Oslo Accords said Gazan waters stretched to 20 miles from the coast

And not a single major news soruce confirms this

Not even haaretz

Jackanory time me thinks

Israel Navy Fire Wounds Palestinian Fisherman Off Gaza Coast

26-year-old Mohammed Bachar was evacuated; no details on type and extent of injury.

A Palestinian fisherman was wounded on Monday morning after an Israeli military ship opened fire off the Gaza coast.

Medical officials and fishermen in Gaza said that an Israel Navy vessel opened fire at fishermen's boats off the northern Gaza Strip.

Nizar Ayyash, chairman of the Gaza fishermen association, said that the wounded man, 26-year-old Mohammed Bachar, was taken to a Gaza hospital for treatment.

No information was given on the type and extent of his injury, but it seems it was not life-threatening.

Palestinians say that Israel was not following an agreement it reached with Hamas after the summer's Gaza war, allowing them to sail up to a range of six nautical miles (Just over 11 kilometers) from the Gaza coast.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.657965

Ahh so its clear he was sailing out to farw and they fired warning shots


Then he is an idiot


Very different from the first report and since when has hamas ever held its part of any deal

Gaza's waters are 20 MILES FROM THE COAST.   Israel changes from week to week how far out they think the fishermen should go, and fire on them whether they are in the limit or not.   The fisherman was within the six miles limit arbitarily put on by Israel and NOTHING in that article says he wasn't.   But of course you support Israeli terrorism on civilian fishermen.

sassy wrote:Gaza's waters are 20 MILES FROM THE COAST.   Israel changes from week to week how far out they think the fishermen should go, and fire on them whether they are in the limit or not.   The fisherman was within the six miles limit arbitarily put on by Israel and NOTHING in that article says he wasn't.   But of course you support Israeli terrorism on civilian fishermen.

No such thing
Show me where Gaza ia recognised as a nation and its borders?

There is nothing but an ageemnent with Israel

This is a non story, its simple, dont get to close.

Second point, stop wanting to destroy Israel

You what, you really like parading your ignorance don't you.   Read the Oslo Accords, just for a start.   What a witless chump you are.

sassy wrote:You what, you really like parading your ignorance don't you.   Read the Oslo Accords, just for a start.   What a witless chump you are.

Hamas has never signed the Oslo accords
Oh dear

Israel Expands Palestinian Fishing Zone Off Gaza’s Coast

GAZA — Israel on Sunday expanded the Palestinian fishing zone off the southern portion of Gaza’s coast to nine nautical miles from six, allowing fishing in areas that had been off limits for a decade.
Palestinian officials welcomed the decision, which they said applied to about 60 percent of Gaza’s Mediterranean coastline.

“I can see hundreds of fishermen and boats — we are excited,” said Zakaria Baker, the Gaza-based head of the fishermen’s committee of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees. He spoke by telephone from the small seaport in Gaza shortly before 3 p.m., when the expansion was scheduled to take effect.

But Mr. Baker questioned whether there would be proper protection for the fishermen in the expanded zone, complaining that Israeli naval forces sometimes opened fire on boats even within the permitted area. He said most Gaza fishermen used GPS equipment to measure their distance from shore.

The Israeli military enforces a naval blockade on the Palestinian coastal enclave of Gaza, which is controlled by the militant group Hamas. Israel says the blockade is necessary to prevent weapons smuggling.

Ismail al-Shrafi, 62, a fisherman, said Sunday that he was unable to join his friends who were preparing their boats because the Israelis had confiscated his boat five months ago and taken it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. Mr. Shrafi said that his boat had been fired on and impounded within four nautical miles of Gaza’s coast and that his son, fishing with him, had been injured by the Israeli fire.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, had no comment on the case involving Mr. Shrafi. Colonel Lerner denied that naval forces had fired at boats within the permitted fishing zone. But he said, “Anybody who breaches the limit is stopped or arrested, and those who don’t comply with the navy forces’ calls to turn back — then, yes, their boats can be impounded.”

Over the weekend, the Israeli Navy sank a suspected smuggling boat that was approaching Gaza from Egypt. Naval forces fired warning shots, and the boat’s crew threw “suspicious cargo overboard” and jumped into the sea before the vessel was sunk, the military said.

Under the Oslo peace accords, the fishing zone was supposed to extend to 20 nautical miles, but it has shrunk over the years as Israel has imposed greater restrictions, citing security concerns. In the years before 2006, fishermen could go out 10 to 12 nautical miles, but from 2006 until 2012 the zone was limited to three nautical miles.


A cease-fire agreement that ended 50 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas in the summer of 2014 restored the six-mile zone, which Israel agreed to in 2012 but later cut back.


Israeli officials said the Israeli Navy and the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, known as Cogat, the Israeli agency that serves as a liaison with the Palestinians on civilian affairs, had decided on Sunday’s expansion to coincide with the opening of the fishing season.

Gaza’s farmers are restricted from farming in a buffer zone along the border with Israel, and the fishing restrictions have added to the challenges facing Gaza’s people, about 80 percent of whom receive some form of food aid. Egypt, Gaza’s neighbor to the south, also tightly restricts movement to and from Gaza across its border.

The expansion of the fishing zone is expected to add 400,000 shekels, or nearly $106,000, to the 6 million shekels in annual revenue generated by Gaza’s fishing industry, according to Cogat. The waters farther out offer greater quantities of fish and different varieties.

Cogat officials said the expansion was part of a policy of loosening restrictions on the Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza to improve the economy and foster stability.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/04/world/middleeast/israel-expands-palestinian-fishing-zone-off-gazas-coast.html?_r=0

Again the oslo accords was signed with the PLO, not Hamas
Hamas refuses to recognise Israel and thus the accords are null and void with Gaza under Hamas control