April 4, 2016 — Israel on Sunday expanded the Palestinian fishing zone off the southern portion of Gaza’s coast to nine nautical miles from six, allowing fishing in areas that had been off limits for a decade.
Palestinian officials welcomed the decision, which they said applied to about 60 percent of Gaza’s Mediterranean coastline.
“I can see hundreds of fishermen and boats — we are excited,” said Zakaria Baker, the Gaza-based head of the fishermen’s committee of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees. He spoke by telephone from the small seaport in Gaza shortly before 3 p.m., when the expansion was scheduled to take effect.