Israel attacks Gaza farms, fishermen as settlers defile al-Aqsa mosque

Israeli forces have launched multiple attacks on fishermen off the coast of the besieged Gaza Strip, while dozens of extremist Israeli settlers escorted by military desecrate the Aqsa Mosque in Occupied al-Quds.

The Palestinian Information Center quoting sources  reported that Israeli naval forces opened fire on fishermen and their boats off the shores of different areas of Gaza early Sunday.

Local sources said the Israeli naval gunboats attacked fishermen off the shores of as-Sudaniya and al-Waha area in the northwest of Gaza, as well as off the coast of Gaza City and central Gaza.

Over the past few years, Israeli forces have carried out hundreds of attacks on Palestinian boats, arresting dozens of fishermen and confiscating several boats.

Under a ceasefire agreement reached between Israelis and Palestinians following a deadly 50-day Israeli war in August 2014, Tel Aviv agreed to immediately expand the fishing zone off Gaza’s coast, allowing Palestinian fishermen to sail as far as six nautical miles off the shore.

Under the Oslo peace accords, the fishing zone is supposed to extend to 20 nautical miles, but it has shrunk over the years as the Tel Aviv regime has imposed greater restrictions.

Gaza fishermen continue to work under Israeli threats

Israel has once again decreased the fishing limit off the Gaza shore amid an increase in naval attacks against Palestinian fishermen.

The Israeli soldiers also opened machinegun fire at swaths of agricultural land in the east of al-Fakhari town in the east of Khan Yunis, south of Gaza.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.

Under Israel's blockade, Gaza's fishermen struggle for a catch

Over the years, Israel’s unlawful and unwarranted attacks and punitive restrictions against Palestinian fishermen have made fishing off Gaza’s coast a risk to life and safety.

Israeli settlers, police storm Al-Aqsa Mosque 

Separately, local media reports said dozens of Israeli settlers stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of al-Quds under the protection of the regime’s forces in the latest provocation against Palestinian people and their holy sites.

At least 64 settlers broke into the mosque compound under the protection of Israeli police. The marauding settlers were led by rabbis, who charged from the western gate and performed some Judaic rituals inside the complex.

The Israeli police imposed movement restrictions on Muslim worshipers, and searched many of them on the roads leading to the mosque.

Hamas decries allowing Israeli ‘silent prayer’ on al-Aqsa Mosque compound

Hamas decries an Israeli court’s decision to allow Israeli settlers to “perform silent prayers” on the al-Aqsa Mosque’s compound.

Hardline Israeli legislators and settlers regularly storm the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied city, a provocative move that infuriates Palestinians. Such mass settler break-ins almost always take place at the behest of Tel Aviv-backed temple groups and under the auspices of the Israeli police in al-Quds.

The al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which sits just above the Western Wall plaza, houses both the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Jewish visitation of al-Aqsa is permitted, but according to an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government in the wake of Israel’s occupation of East al-Quds in 1967, non-Muslim worship at the compound is prohibited.

Back in May, frequent acts of violence against Palestinian worshipers at the al-Aqsa Mosque led to an 11-day war between Palestinian resistance groups in the besieged Gaza Strip and the Israeli regime, during which the regime killed at least 260 Palestinians, including 66 children. Palestinians want the occupied West Bank as part of their future independent state and view al-Quds’ eastern sector as the capital of their future sovereign state.

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