A 17-year-old Palestinian was injured when a Navy patrol vessel fired in the direction of a fishing boat off the shores of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said Saturday.
The Israel Defense Forces is trying to determine whether the fishermen in the boat mistakenly navigated in Israeli territorial waters or whether terrorists had planned to infiltrate Israel or carry out an attack form the sea.
Ynet has learned that the navy intercepted the boat some 16 kilometers (10 miles) in Israeli territorial waters and was forced to fire when the fishermen refused to obey orders to return to Gaza.
The two fishermen ignored the navigators’ calls and pursued their sail, hitting the boat three times according to the IDF spokesman, who said that the incident is still being investigated.
Incidents between the Navy and Palestinian fishermen are frequent off the shores of Gaza where an IDF fleet controls the territorial waters to prevent terrorists from using the sea to infiltrate into Israel and carry out terror attacks from the sea. The army said that the incident is unusual because the fishermen hit the boat.