According to local sources, the zionist regime’s gunboats fired live ammunition at fishing boats during their presence within six nautical miles off the shore of Deir al-Balah and sank one of the boats using a water cannon.

The attack forced the fishermen to return ashore, but there was no information if anyone from the sunken fishing boat was hurt.

The zionist naval forces and their 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 the Zionist regime has kept reducing the fishing area gradually to a limit between six to 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. (ILKHA)