Israeli navy shoots, injures Gazan fisherman

A Palestinian fisherman was shot and injured with a rubber-coated steel bullet fired by Israeli naval forces while working off Gaza’s coast, on Tuesday.

According to the Palestinian Fishermen Union in Gaza, Amran Muhammad Bakr was shot and injured during an attack by Israeli naval forces while working off the coast of Gaza.

Sources confirmed that Bakr was shot and injured in the back with a rubber-coated steel bullet.

However, his medical condition remained unknown.

The Israeli army also regularly detains and opens fire on unarmed Palestinian fishermen, shepherds, and farmers along the border areas if they approach the buffer zone, as the authorities have not made clear the precise area of the designated zone.

The practice has in effect destroyed much of the agricultural and fishing sector of the blockaded coastal enclave, which has been under an Israeli air, land, and sea blockade for 12 years.

Israeli human rights group B'Tselem recently concluded that Israel's Gaza closure and "harassment of fishermen" have been "destroying Gaza's fishing sector," with 95 percent of fishermen living below the poverty line.

Posted in: Palestinian Fishermen