[IsraelTimes] Navy gunfire seriously injures 1 man; navy boards 2 boats to detain 6 fishermen.An Israeli patrol boat fired at Paleostinian fishermen accused of breaching the blockade off the northern Gazoo Strip on Monday, seriously wounding one, officials said.
Fishing off the northern part of the strip, adjacent to Israel, is limited to six nautical miles offshore and the Israeli navy regularly fires at Paleostinians who breach the zone’s outer limit.
The fishermen’s union head Nizar Ayash said that the shooting and the arrest of four crewmen happened in one incident and two more arrests were made when the military boarded another Gazoo boat overnight.
The injured man’s family identified him as Mohammed Majed Bakr, 25.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the shooting but did not speak of additional arrests.
"A vessel deviated from the designated fishing zone in the northern Gazoo Strip," the spokeswoman told AFP. "Naval forces in the area called upon the vessel to halt and fired warning shots into the air."
She said that the boat ignored the warning and the navy then fired at it.
"As a result of the fire a Paleostinian was injured and was evacuated to an Israeli hospital for immediate medical treatment," she added.
Israel has maintained a blockade on Gazoo for 10 years, which it says is necessary to keep arms and other materials that can be used for military purposes out of the hands of Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, and other Paleostinian terror groups.
UN officials have called for the blockade to be lifted, citing deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
The size of the fishing zone has varied over the years, having been set at 20 nautical miles by the Oslo accords of the 1990s before being reduced by Israeli authorities.
About 4,000 fishermen work off the coastal strip, more than half of whom live below the poverty line.
Gaza fisherman shot by navy dies in hospital, IDF says
[IsraelTimes] A Gazook fisherman shot by an Israeli Navy ship on Monday after breaching the blockade off the Paleostinian territory dies from his wounds, an IDF spokeswoman says.
The vessel was reportedly the fourth such ship to breach the blockade on Monday, which Paleostinians mark as "Nakba Day," a day of mourning for the displacement of Paleostinians during Israel’s founding in 1948.
The vessel did not turn back after the warning shots, and the Navy ship shot towards it, wounding the fisherman aboard. Navy sailors took the man to an Israeli hospital, where he died from his wounds.