Israeli forces wound dozens of Palestinian protesters in naval march in northern Gaza Strip

Rasa - Israeli troops have wounded dozens of Palestinian demonstrators who were holding a protest rally along the northern coast of the besieged Gaza Strip in a bid to break the nearly 12-year long Israeli-imposed blockade on the impoverished sliver.

News ID: 441762

Date: 27 November 2018 - 16:48

RNA - According to Palestinian Ma'an News Agency on Monday, at least three protesters sustained wounds by Israeli live ammunition while dozens more suffered from tear-gas inhalation during a protest rally held by hundreds of Gazans along the northern coasts of the besieged enclave.

The medical condition of the three wounded remained unknown, the report added.

The demonstration on Monday was the 17th naval march setting off from the Gaza seaport, with the participation of dozens of Gazans’ fishing boats, against the crippling blockade of the sliver.

Israeli navy forces fired live rounds and tear gas canisters at both marchers and boats in an attempt to disperse them.

In August, the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) announced in a report that Israeli attacks against Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza Strip prevent “fishermen from practicing their fishing work and accessing their livelihood resources.”

Israel imposed a limit of three nautical miles on fishing in the waters off the Gaza shore until August 2014, when Palestinian fishermen were allowed to go out six miles.

Back in July, however, Israel reduced the fishing area to only three nautical miles as part of punitive measures against Gazans over the launch of incendiary balloons from the Palestinian coastal sliver into the occupied territories as part of ongoing protests against the decades-long Israeli occupation.

During the past few years, Israeli soldiers have conducted more than a hundred assaults on Palestinian boats, arresting dozens of fishermen and confiscating several boats.

Israel has imposed movement restrictions on the Gaza Strip since the early 1990s. Restrictions intensified in June 2007 when Israel imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza, citing security concerns.

Around two million Palestinians in Gaza remain locked in and are prevented from having free access to the remainder of Palestine and the outside world. The blockade has also undermined the living conditions in the coastal enclave and fragmented its economic and social fabric.

Tensions have been running high near the fence, separating Gaza from the occupied territories, since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests dubbed “The Great March of Return.” Palestinian protesters demand the right to return for those driven out of their homeland.

The deadly clashes in Gaza reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day, or the Day of Catastrophe, which coincided this year with Washington's relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.

Some 240 Palestinians have so far been killed and over 20,000 others wounded in the renewed Gaza clashes, according to the latest figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry.

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