Gaza / PNN (thank you to ISM-GAZA) - Yesterday dozens of fishermen from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip held a nonviolent march towards the coast of the Mediterranean to protest recent Israeli naval attacks.
The Palestinians were joined by the Director of the General Syndicate of Marine Fishers, Nizar Ayash, as well as local activists from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative.
The demonstration was supported by foreign supporters from the International Solidarity Movement; among them were two who had been abducted by the Israeli naval forces last November.
The Israeli navy has intensely escalated its attacks against Gazan fishermen since the recent onslaught on the Gaza Strip that
intensified for 23 days beginning at the end of December.
In just the past three weeks at least two Palestinian fishermen have been injured by Israeli gunfire, while a whopping16 have been abducted: some of them tortured and later released as reported by the
victims and human rights organizations.
Israeli forces also stole seven fishing boats without return. Several other boats have also reportedly been damaged by Israeli gunfire. Most of the assaulted fishermen are from the Beit Lahia in the northern Strip, some of whom now face even more bleak situations.
They already lost their homes during the recent major Israeli bombings and have now lost their sole means of income in a Gaza already greatly impoverished by the nearly three year long siege on the Strip.
