Gaza City, February 22 (RHC)-- Palestinian authorities say Israeli naval forces have injured at least three fishermen after opening fire on their boats off the coast of the besieged Gaza Strip.  The attack took place 11 nautical miles off the coast of Khan Younis, head of the Fishermen Committees in the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Zakaria Bakr, told Ma'an news agency Thursday.

Sources said at least four fishermen aboard the boats were detained, while Israeli forces confiscated some of the boats and towed them to an Israeli port.  Bakr identified the detainees as Khader Marwan al-Saidi, Muhammad Said al-Saidi, and brothers Haitham and Awni Tareq Bakr.

Further south in the port of Rafah, an Israeli military vessel rammed into a Palestinian fisherman's boat, leaving him hospitalized and his boat damaged.  The boat caught fire as Israeli naval forces opened fire on Palestinian fishermen in the northern part of besieged Gaza Strip.

In recent years, Israeli forces have carried out more than a hundred attacks on Palestinian boats, arresting dozens of fishermen and confiscating some of the vessels. 

Palestinians have held weekly protests near the Gaza fence over the siege on the enclave and the right for refugees to return to their homes they were forcibly expelled from during the 1948 creation of Israel.

More than 260 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces ever since anti-occupation protest rallies began in the Gaza Strip on March 30th last year.  Over 26,000 Palestinians have also sustained injuries.