Israel is reopening on Friday the permitted fishing zone off the Gaza coast following a ceasefire deal with the coastal enclave's terrorist Hamas rulers, which ended the worst spate of fighting between the enemies since a 2014 war.
COGAT, the Israeli defense body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said Israel would expand the Palestinian fishing zone to a maximum of 12 nautical miles to "prevent the deterioration in humanitarian conditions" in the blockaded Gaza Strip.
A truce, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations, restored quiet to the volatile border after a weekend escalation killed four Israelis; 25 Palestinians were killed in Israeli counterstrikes to rocket barrages from Gaza.
The ceasefire deal is believed to include economic aid measures to help ease the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the territory, imposed after Hamas seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in a bloody coup in 2007.
