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Israeli gunfire injures three Palestinian fishermen

Palestinian fishermen sit on a boat at the port of Gaza City, January 25, 2015. (AFP photo)

Israeli forces have opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of the besieged Gaza Strip, injuring at least three fishermen.

Nizar Ayyash, the head of the fishermen association of the Gaza Strip, said on Tuesday that the fishermen were on their boats in the waters off the northwestern coast of Gaza when the Israeli forces attacked them.

An Israeli military official said that only two Palestinians had been wounded in Israeli gunfire. The Israeli official claimed the Palestinian boats had “deviated from the designated fishing zone.”

Fishermen in Gaza face such attacks by Israeli forces on an almost regular basis. Recently, five Palestinian fishermen were also detained by the Israeli forces off the coast of Gaza. No charges have been announced against them.

The Gaza Strip has been under Israeli blockade since 2007, which has caused a decline in the standards of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and widespread poverty in the coastal enclave.

Following the 50-day Israeli war on Gaza in July and August 2014, the Tel Aviv regime agreed to immediately expand the fishing zone off the coast of Gaza, allowing fishermen to sail as far as six nautical miles off the shore. However, Palestinian fishermen say the Israeli forces often open fire on them before they reach the limit.

Palestinian houses demolished in East al-Quds

In a separate incident in the occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem), Israeli forces bulldozed three Palestinian houses in the Silwan and Salah al-Din neighborhoods on Tuesday.

Palestinians from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh wave their national flag as they stand at the site of a house demolished by Israeli bulldozers on April 28, 2015. (AFP photo)

 

Witnesses said Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters into the houses before the demolition started.

The Israeli regime destroyed more than 350 Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank throughout 2014, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

MRA/HSN/HJL


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