GAZA CITY: Egyptian naval forces have arrested four Palestinian fishermen off the coast of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials and witnesses said on Saturday.
The four were detained late on Friday off the divided border town of Rafah in southern Gaza, said an official with the Hamas-run security forces. No further details were given.
Witnesses said the fishermen had apparently strayed into Egyptian waters.
However, security officials on the Egyptian side of Rafah denied the arrests, while adding that Cairo had previously warned Palestinian fishermen after they started to regularly trespass in Egyptian waters.
But the Hamas-run agriculture ministry insisted the four men had been arrested while doing their job and called on Egypt to stop oppressing Palestinian fishermen.
In a bid to prevent weapons smuggling, Israel and Egypt have blockaded the Gaza Strip since the Islamist Hamas took control of the coastal enclave in June 2007, ousting the forces of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Under Israeli and US pressure, Egypt has in recent months stepped up its efforts, constructing an underground wall to foil smuggling tunnels and also bolstering its naval forces.
Israel, which controls access to the territory by sea and air, has reduced the fishing area, which was 37 kilometers off Gaza under the 1993 Oslo autonomy accords, to just three nautical miles today.
Before the embargo, about 3,500 fishermen made a living along Gaza s 40 kilometer coastline. -AFP
