GAZA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The naval forces of Egypt arrested on Sunday evening four Palestinian fishermen off the southern Gaza Strip coast, close to Egypt's territorial waters, Palestinian security sources said.
The sources told Xinhua that Egyptian naval vessels arrested three brothers and their colleague while they were on a fishing boat off the coast of Rafah town in the southern Gaza Strip without specifying the reason.
Last year, two Palestinian fishermen were shot dead by the Egyptian naval forces in the southern Gaza Strip in two separate incidents.
There are 3,800 Palestinian fishermen in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Fishermen Association.
Earlier on Sunday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye said the humanitarian situation in Gaza "is badly mounting because of the Israeli measures, mainly the Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip for 12 years.
"The Israeli occupation created this hard situation in the Gaza Strip in order to serve the United States to pass its upcoming peace plan, known as 'Deal of the Century,'" Ishtaye noted.
Ishtaye's remarks came during his meeting in Ramallah with Daniel Duvillard, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Jerusalem.
"What happens in Gaza is a plan that aims at ending the two-state solution and turning the Palestinian cause from being political to humanitarian," said Ishtaye, who welcomed providing humanitarian aid for Gaza through legal channels.
