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Photo:
Illustrative scene. Published by Maan News
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GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities on Friday released two Palestinian fishermen from the Gaza Strip after three years of detention.

Head of the Gazan Fishermen Union Zakariya Bakr told Ma’an that Israeli authorities released fishermen Imad al-Din Mansour and Rami Jumaa via the Erez crossing.

Mansour and Jumaa were detained by Israeli forces while working off the coast of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip three years ago.

The Israeli army regularly detains and opens fire on unarmed Palestinian fishermen, shepherds, and farmers along the border areas if they approach Israel’s unilaterally declared “buffer zone,” which lies on both the land and sea sides of Gaza.

The practice has in effect destroyed much of the agricultural and fishing sector of the blockaded coastal enclave.

Gazan fishermen, whose numbers are estimated to be around 4,000, have suffered from the near decade-long siege of the Gaza Strip, which limits their incursions to just six nautical miles into the sea in accordance with the ceasefire agreement signed with Palestinian factions in 2014.