Israeli forces open fire at Gaza fishermen, injure 3

Published yesterday (updated) 10/11/2014 17:45

(MaanImages/File)

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli gunboats shot and injured three Palestinian fishermen off the coast of the southern Gaza Strip late Sunday, witnesses told Ma'an.

The witnesses said Israeli forces shot at the boat until it took fire, and that fishermen in a nearby boat managed to pull the injured aboard and escape under heavy fire.

The injured fishermen were taken to Abu Yusuf al-Najjar hospital in Rafah.

An Israeli army spokeswoman told Ma'an that navy forces identified a Palestinian boat entering Egyptian territorial waters around 10 p.m. Sunday, and that upon its return to Palestinian waters the forces called on the boat to stop.

When the boat did not stop, the naval forces opened fire at the boat, "identifying a hit."

She confirmed that the boat caught fire and said that Palestinians "were seen jumping into the water."

Israeli forces believe the incident is "probably a potential smuggling," the spokeswoman said.

She added that a similar incident occurred at 1 a.m. Monday morning.

The Aug. 26 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinian militant groups stipulated that Israel would immediately expand the fishing zone off Gaza's coast, allowing fishermen to sail as far as six nautical miles from shore, and would continue to expand the area gradually.

Since then, there have been widespread reports that Israeli forces have at times opened fire at fishermen within those new limits, and the zone has not been expanded.

Prior to the recent agreement, Israeli forces maintained a limit of three nautical miles on all Gaza fishermen, opening fire at fishermen who strayed further, despite earlier agreements which had settled on a 20-mile limit.

The restrictions have crippled Gaza's fishing industry and impoverished local fishermen.

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Israeli Gunboats Attack and Burn Two Fishing Boats

 Al Mezan

At approximately 9:30 pm on Sunday, 9 November 2014, Israeli gunboats opened fire and launched shells targeting a fishing boat that was sailing about 200 meters away in the sea near the nautical borders with Egypt.
As a result, the boat was totally burned and two fishermen were sustained shrapnel wounds in their limbs.
They were referred to Abu Youssif An-Najjar hospital in Rafah.
Medical sources described their injuries as moderate, and they refused to disclose their identity in the hospital.
At approximately 11:40 pm on the same day, Israeli gunboats opened fire and launched shells at a fishing boat that was sailing about 800 meters away in the sea off the fishermen port in Rafah, in the south-west of Gaza Strip.
The boat was burned, and no injuries or causalities were reported.

[Boat burnt because of Israeli Navy attack]

extract from PCHR weekly report 23 - 29/10/2014

 Thursday, 23 October 2014

At approximately 23:00, Israeli gunboats opened fire and fired shells at a fishing boat sailing 1 nautical mile off the fishing harbor in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.  As a result, the boat which belongs to the Baker family in Gaza was burnt, but no injuries were reported.  

Staying: Palestinian Fishers and Farmers in Gaza

This film, produced by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees in Palestine, looks at the impact of Israeli siege on Palestinian fishers and farmers in Gaza, and the fishers' and farmers' steadfastness and resistance on their land and the Gaza sea.

Amnesty International "whitewashes" Israeli Navy's crimes

Finally, after 3 years of efforts from international activists (ISM, Free Gaza Movement, CPSGaza), Amnesty International decided to pay some attention on the issue of Gaza fishermen. In the episode 7 of Amnesty TV, by Amnesty UK, there is a 3:51 part concering Gaza fishermen. (Go to 1:47).

http://tv.amnesty.org.uk/episodes/episode-seven/the_facts/



But all we see on this video is an Israeli gunboat aproaching and just... calling 2 fishermen in a small boat, accompanied by foreign hebrew speaking journalists, to go closer to the beach.

Is it just this what is really happening to the Gaza fishermen?

Where are the images of Gaza fishermen killed by the Israeli Navy?

Mohammed Nadi Saleh al-'Attar (picture from In Gaza blog)

Where do we hear the voice of the families of killed fishermen?




Where do we see in Amnesty´s video, the injured fishermen?








Where do we see in Amnesty's video the Gaza fishermen mutilated by Israeli gunfire?




Where do we see in Amnesty's video the fishing boats with dozens of bullet holes?






Where do we see in Amnesty's video, the fishing boats incinerated after Israeli shelling?




Where do we see in Amnesty's video, the fishing boats rammed by Israeli gunboats?





Where do we see in Amnesty's video, the Israeli gunboats shooting at the nets of the fishing boats? And bullets found inside the fishing boat...




Where do we see in Amnesty's video, the Israli gunboats throwing explosives near the fishing boats and spraying the fishermen and the catch of fishes with unknown biological or chemical liquid?




Where do we see in Amnesty's video, the Israeli gunboats firing shells, machinegun fire, tracer bullets and water from watercannon?




Where do we see in Amnesty's video, international activists injured by shattered glass during watercannon attacks?




Where do we see in Amnesty's video, the international accompaniment boat Oliva, attacked with watercannon by Israeli gunboats?






Where do we see in Amnesty's video, the Gaza fishermen who have been abducted, detained and abused, in order to become spies?





If small organizations with few activists like ISM, Free Gaza Movement or CPSGaza and a few Palestinian or foreign journalists, have managed to show the real life of Gaza fishermen, why can't the biggest human rights organization in the world, with 3 million members and a huge budget, do the same? And why Amnesty International didn't use some of this footage for the report on Gaza fishermen?
After seeing all these images, you can understand why Amnesty's report (of Israeli Navy just... shouting to the Palestinian fishermen), can be considered rather a "whitewash" of Israeli Navy's crimes, than a decent human rights report...

kaxlan2009

(The opinions expressed in this post are of  kaxlan2009, the administrator of Fishing Under Fire, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of other international activists who have worked or still working with Gaza fishermen)

IOF troops advance in southern Gaza, as navy destroys fishing boat

[ 25/10/2010 - 09:28 AM ]

KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raided eastern Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, at dawn Monday amidst random firing, local sources told the PIC. They added that four IOF armored vehicles advanced tens of meters in citizens' land east of Khan Younis and bulldozed the land amidst indiscriminate firing with no casualties reported. IOF warplanes had broken the sound barrier over the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening causing big noise and spreading panic especially in lines of children and women. PIC reporter said that the act was sudden, noting that it followed intensive flight of reconnaissance planes. Meanwhile, the reporter said that Israeli navy gunboats shelled and destroyed a Palestinian fishing boat off the central Gaza Strip coast. The reporter, who was at scene of the incident, said that the boat was completely destroyed but no casualties were reported. In the West Bank the IOF soldiers detained 11 Palestinian citizens at dawn Monday  in the districts of Bethlehem, Al-Khalil, and Qalqilia.

Israel targeting fishermen, farmers in Gaza

Eva Bartlett, The Electronic Intifada, 11 September 2009

Masoud Tanboura at Kamal Adwan hospital. (Eva Bartlett)

On 31 August, Israeli gunboats shot at and shelled the fishing trawler of Khaled al-Habil, destroying it completely and leaving the boat's 18 fishermen and their families without a source of income.

One week earlier, on 24 August, Israeli soldiers along Gaza's northern border shot dead a young farm worker, Said al-Hussumi. Sixteen-year-old al-Hussumi was killed while working on land a few hundred meters from the border with his cousin Masoud Tanboura, who was seriously wounded.

"We were working in Attatra, near the sea, about 350 meters from the [border] fence," said Tanboura of Beit Lahiya.

Tanboura's survival is miraculous as his chest cavity was pierced from left to right by a bullet. After seeing his cousin fall dead upon being shot in the chest, Tanboura ran and walked what he estimates was a kilometer, bleeding heavily from his chest, until he came across farmers with a donkey cart. He was transported by donkey cart until a car was able to take him to the Kamal Adwan hospital.

Israeli military sources told reporters two "suspicious" persons had approached the border with Israel and ignored warning shots.

"There was no warning," Tanboura said from his hospital bed. "The Israelis started shooting as soon as we got to the land."

Farm laborers working for 20 to 30 shekels ($5-$6) a day, the two youths had been scouring for pieces of metal to use to fence off the plot of land. They had gotten closer to the border, but this was normal.

"We went there all the time," said Tanboura. "The Israeli soldiers always saw us, they knew we were just taking metal. Many people go there to take metal from destroyed houses," he said.

According to Tanboura, his cousin's dead body was dragged across the ground by Israeli soldiers who took the corpse to Israel and returned it hours later via the Erez crossing.

Tanboura, like some of his brothers, used the meager salary from day labor on farms to support the 15 other siblings in his family.

Killed while collecting figs

On 4 September, 14-year-old Ghazi al-Zaneen from Beit Hanoun was killed when an Israeli soldier shot him in the head. Along with his father, uncles and some of his siblings, the youth had gone to collect figs on their land east of Beit Hanoun. Although it is near the border with Israel, the farmland where al-Zaneen was killed is still more than 500 meters away.

"They had driven to the land and were walking in the area. Ghazi got up on the rubble of a house to look further. Then the Israelis started shooting heavily. Everyone lay on the ground. When the shooting stopped, they got up to run away and realized that Ghazi had been shot in the head," said his aunt.

Maher al-Zaneen, Ghazi's father, testified to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights that Israeli soldiers continued to fire as he carried the injured boy to the car. Ghazi al-Zaneen succumbed to his critical head injuries the following day.

The day after his death, Ghazi's mother sat surrounded by female relatives and friends. She asked, "How would mothers in your country feel if their sons were killed like this? Don't your politicians care that Israel is killing our children?"

Israeli authorities reportedly claimed that "suspicious Palestinians approached the fence" and troops responded by "firing into the air." But the shot to Ghazi al-Zaneen's head and the two bullet holes in Maher al-Zaneen's car suggest otherwise.

Since the end of Israel's three-week winter invasion of Gaza during which approximately 1,500 Palestinians were killed, nine more Palestinian civilians have been killed at sea or on the strip's border regions. This includes four minors and one mentally disabled adult. Another 30 Palestinians, including eight minors, have been wounded by Israeli shooting and shelling, including by the use of "flechette" dart-bombs on civilian areas.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, roughly one third of Gaza's agricultural land lies within the Israel's unilaterally-imposed "no go zone," or "buffer zone." This band of land stretching south to north along Gaza's borders to Israel was established in late 2000 during the second Palestinian intifada. Initially set at 150 meters, it has varied over time. At one point, it was nearly two kilometers in the north and one kilometer in the east. At present, Israeli authorities say 300 meters along the border are "off limits" and those found within the area risk being shot at by Israeli soldiers.

However, one case demonstrates that Israeli soldiers will shoot at Palestinian civilians as far away from the border as 1,800 meters. Sixty-three-year-old Fawzi Ali Qassem was on his land east of Beit Hanoun, at least 1,800 meters away from the border, when Israeli soldiers opened fire on farmers. Ali Qassem was hit in his left thigh on 23 August 2009.

Under a brutal 27-month-long siege, the Israeli military is killing fishermen, farmers and other civilians in areas it is deliberately trying to depopulate. This represents yet another component in Israel's matrix of control over the lives of Palestinians in Gaza. In the face of such blatant Israeli military terrorizing, Palestinians remain defiantly resilient, farming, fishing and living under fire.

Eva Bartlett is a Canadian human rights advocate and freelancer who arrived in Gaza in November 2008 on the third Free Gaza Movement boat. She has been volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement and documenting Israel's ongoing attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. During Israel's recent assault on Gaza, she and other ISM volunteers accompanied ambulances and documenting the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces incinerate Gazan fishing boat

Posted on the ISM webpage: September 5, 2009 |

ISM Gaza

3 September 2009

In November 2008 Abu Adham’s fishing boat was seized by the Israeli Navy and all the fishermen were abducted and transferred to Israel. The fishermen and boat were subsequently released without charge.

In June 2009 the Israeli Navy attacked the boat, riddling it with machine gun fire, causing extensive damage, and nearly killing the crew. The boat was then seized and the fishermen were abducted and transferred to Israel. On route to the port of Ashdod, Adham the captain of the fishing boat was beaten up by the Israeli sailors. The fishermen and the boat were subsequently released without charge.

On 31st August 2009 the Israeli Navy attacked several fishing boats as they were at work in Palestinian territorial waters. Abu Adham’s boat was riddled with bullets, and bombarded with shells. Flames engulfed the boat. Despite managing to tow it back to the port in Gaza City as it was burning, the fishermen were unable to prevent the boat’s destruction.

Two days before this attack, the Israeli Navy killed a Palestinian fishermen in the same area. It’s reported that he was but four metres from shore when an Israeli gun boat fired a shell at him. He was decapitated.

Updated on September 5, 2009

PCHR weekly report 27/8 - 2/9/2009: 1 Palestinian fishermen KILLED several injured, fishing boats destroyed or damaged

excerpt from PCHR weekly report: No. 35/2009 27/8 - 2/9/2009

Fire breaking out in a Palestinian fishing boat as it was fired at by the Israeli gunboats near Gaza

Thursday, 27 August 2009

At approximately 13:20, IOF gunboats stationed opposite to Beit Lahia town in the northern Gaza Strip fired a shell at a number of Palestinian fishers who were swimming and fishing nearly 700 meters away from the beach. As a result, Mohammed Nadi Saleh al-'Attar, 25, from Beit Lahia, died after being decapitated. Additionally, Salem Mahmoud al-'Attar, 24, who was near the victim, suffered from shock.

Monday, 31 August 2009

At approximately 08:15, IOF gunboats stationed opposite to Beit Lahia beach in the northern Gaza Strip opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats which sailed beyond the limit specified by IOF. As a result, fire broke out in a fishing boat belonging to the al-Habeel famil, from al-Shati refugee camp in the west of Gaza City. Fishermen on the boat were lightly injured as they jumped into water when fire broke out in the boat. IOF gunboats attempted to extinguish fire, but they could not. They then allowed other Palestinian fishing boats to pull the affected boat towards the beach, where the fire was extinguished by Palestinian civil defense crews. Additionally, a fishing boat belonging to 'Abdul Mo'ti al-Habeel was damaged.

Israelis destroy boats, and lives

Eva Bartlett | Inter Press Service

3 September 2009

In Gaza: Israeli Navy Terrorism: Destroying Boats and Lives

(IPS) – Until Monday, Omar and Khaled Al-Habil were the owners of a 20m fishing trawler staffed by five or six fishermen at a time, but employing around 18 in cycles. But that morning the vessel came under heavy Israeli navy machine-gun fire, and then shelling. The trawler caught fire.

“It’s destroyed, completely destroyed,” says Al-Habil.

“They had left early in the morning and headed north,” Al-Habil said, of the crew of five fishermen that morning, including his son Adham Al-Habil. He says the boat was well within a three-mile limit set by Israel.

“There were other fishing boats with them. The boat was about a kilometre out off Gaza’s coast, and was at the southern end of Sudaniya (a coastal region of Beit Lahia, northern Gaza).”

An Israeli navy spokesperson reportedly said the boat “violated security boundaries off the coast of the Gaza Strip” and was “out of the permitted fishing zone.” She said the boats failed to respond to warning shots.

Khaled Al-Habil recalls differently.

“An Israeli navy boat approached them and opened fire. It was chaos. The firing was intense; it lasted 15 or 20 minutes. The fishing boat stopped, but the Israelis kept shooting. Finally, the Israelis shot a mortar at the boat. All the fishermen jumped into the water.”

His son Adham Al-Habil sustained burns from the fire, which broke out most likely as a result of the mortar shelling.

A charred hole on the front right-hand side of the boat marks where the mortar hit and exited. From that point down, the deck is blackened with soot. The metal steering wheel is all that remains of the cabin.

“Other fishermen came to help. They towed my boat back to Gaza port,” said Al-Habil. Once there, it took fire-fighters more than 20 minutes to put out the fires.

Palestinian fishers have the right to fish as far as 20 nautical miles from the coast of Gaza, but Israeli authorities have over the years unilaterally reduced that limit to three miles. The more abundant catches are found past six miles.

The Palestinian fishing industry, employing more than 3,500, has been devastated by Israeli attacks on fishing boats, confiscation of boats and equipment, and the abduction of Palestinian fishers.

Under the Israeli-led siege, with the complicity of Egypt, Gaza is starved of basic goods to enable a functioning economy and society. This includes replacement parts for missing or broken fishing equipment.

While a reported 95 percent of Gaza’s industries have shut down due to the siege, many unemployed Palestinians have turned to fishing, unviable as it is.

The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) August 2009 report details the devolution of the fishing industry.

OCHA cites the fishing catch for the month of April for the past three years. In 2007, fishers hauled in 292 tons. In 2008, the catch was 154 tons, and in 2009 it was reduced to 79 tons.

Reduced to fishing along the coast, many of the fish are caught in waters contaminated by the 80 million litres of raw or partially-treated sewage pumped daily into the sea “as a result of lack of maintenance and upgrading of the wastewater infrastructure,” OCHA notes.

And now Al-Habil does not have a fishing vessel at all.

This was not the first problem for his now destroyed boat. On Jun. 4, Israeli gunboats abducted six fishers and seized Al-Habil’s boat three miles off the northern coast of Gaza, holding it for 45 days before returning it. Al-Habil found equipment missing and significant damage done to the engine and cables.

On Nov. 18, 2008, Israeli gunboats surrounded three Palestinian fishing boats, including Al-Habil’s boat, seven miles off the coast of central Gaza, and took all 15 fishers on board, as well as three international solidarity activists. The Israelis kept the boats until Nov. 27.

“It’s not just my boat. Every day the Israelis are attacking us: if not a trawler, then a small boat, or on land.”

Palestinian fisher Muhammed Al-Attar was killed by Israeli shelling off northern Gaza Aug. 27. Head of emergency services Dr Mu’awiyah Hassanein said Al-Attar was decapitated by the blast.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reports that 12-year-old Mohammed Bassam ‘Aashour was seriously injured by a gunshot to his head Aug. 14 when Israeli gunboats fired on Palestinian fishing boats near Rafah coast.

Khaled Al-Habil is just one among many Palestinian fishers whose livelihoods have been wrecked. The father of 13 children lives with his family in a cramped 400 square metre apartment. His only source of income has been destroyed.

“I want a good lawyer,” he says, “and I want to take this to court.”

*from the United Nations’ OCHA August 2009 report

attacked by the Israeli navy: a shelled Palestinian fishing trawler is “completely destroyed”

videos of Israeli naval boats attacking Palestinian fishermen

Israeli warships bombard Gaza fishing boat

Published yesterday (updated) 01/09/2009 12:36

Gaza – Ma'an – Israeli warships bombarded Palestinian boats off the Sudaniyya shore north of Gaza City on Monday morning, according to Nizar Ayyash, head of the Fishermen's Union. The official said the boat, which belonged to Umar Ibrahim Al-Habeil, was set ablaze by several shells fired from an Israeli naval unit operating in the area. Al-Habeil was reportedly injured in the attack. In a statement, Gaza's Agriculture Ministry said fishermen were unable to put out a fire that burned large sections of the boat. It called on Israel to stop targeting fishers, as the industry is their only source of income. Approached by Ma'an, an Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that the boat was damaged by naval fire. However she said the navy also helped put out the blaze. She said no one was injured or arrested.The spokeswoman added that a number of vessels, including the damaged ship, violated a northern boundary patrolled by Israel's navy. She said the navy first fired warning shots into the air when the boat refused to turn back, but targeted the ship when it did not. The attack on Monday was not thought to be related to the ongoing siege of the coastal strip since the northern boundary, while entirely inside Gazan territorial waters, was determined by a joint agreement. But Israel's navy has regularly targeted Palestinian fishermen who venture off the coast ever since the military unilaterally declared waters more than three kilometers from the shore a no-fishing zone in January 2009. Last Thursday, medical officials said a fisherman was killed and another injured in a similar shelling attack off the Gaza coast. Israel's military denied that its navy had anything to do with that incident.

Gaza fishing boat bombed by Israeli navy

Monday August 31, 2009 17:01 by IMEMC & Agencies

The Israeli navy attacked Palestinian fishing boats off the shores of northern Gaza on Monday morning. One boat caught fire after it was bombed by several Israeli shells.
Israeli navy firing shells - Reprinted from Palestine Chronicle
The Israeli army confirmed the attack, as well as the damage to the fishing boat, saying the boat went beyond the northern boundary of the Strip. The Israeli navy regularly attacks Palestinian boats that are fishing off the Gaza shores.
In January 2009 Israel imposed tight regulations on the Palestinian fishing sector declaring waters more than 3 kilometers off the shore a no-fishing zone. Ever since Israel imposed its blockade on the Gaza Strip in June 2007, fishing has been one of the few remaining sources of income.

Gaza Fishermen under Israeli fire again
Monday, 31 August 2009 22:21 Added by PT Editor Ayman Quader

Gaza, August 31, 2009 (Pal Telegraph)-Medical officials reported today that Israeli naval forces shelled a fishing boat north of the Gaza strip, near Al Sudania district, this malicious attack completely destroyed a Palestinian boat and in the process injured its owner. The Palestinian Agriculture Ministry in Gaza, stated that fisherman Omar Al-Habil and his boat was less than one kilometre off the Sudania beach north of Gaza city when the Israeli navy ships targeted him.
Additionally the ministry stated that other Gaza fishing boats tried in vain to direct the fire away from the already stricken boat.
After being prevented from adequately equipping their boats due to the now 3 year old siege of Gaza, the fishermen are suffering from a some-what disturbing change of tactics by the Israeli regime and as a consequence they are now suffering the final indignity of being prevented from both gaining their livelihoods & feeding their families.

Damaged Palestinian fishing boats 20/5/2009

These are some of the "hassakas" , small fishing boats of poor Palestinian fishermen in Salateen, Gaza Strip, damaged by the Israeli Navy. The first two were stolen in March 2009 and were returned after two months, about a week ago, in this condition. The third one was destroyed in 2006 by Israeli Navy shelling of the beach

Ten organizations launch int'l campaign in solidarity with Gaza fishermen

[ 14/04/2009 - 09:25 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Ten civil and humanitarian institutions in cooperation with the Palestinian international campaign to break the siege said Monday that they embarked on preparing an international campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian fishermen to pressure all official parties around the world into stopping Israeli violations in Gaza waters. In a news conference, the institutions called for taking actions at all levels to stop Israel from violating the rights of Palestinian fishermen in Gaza and for organizing campaigns all over the world to expose these infringements. The institutions stressed the need for making laws regulating fishing operations and securing fish resources and the marine environment in Gaza. They also pointed to the importance of updating fishing boats and ports in Gaza, calling for the establishment of specialized workshops to repair and maintain fishing equipment and finding a mechanism to support the fishermen financially. In another context, the ministry of agriculture said Tuesday in a press release that the story of the fishing boat explosion near the Gaza coast is an Israeli fabrication to redouble and justify attacks on Palestinian fishermen. The ministry added that Palestinian eyewitness reported that the boat was not booby-trapped, but it was targeted by an Israeli gunboat leading to its explosion. It noted that the Israeli military navy stepped up recently its attacks on Gaza fishermen at sea, where they kidnapped many of them and threatened to target their fishing boats if they did not cooperate and work as agents for Israel. The ministry pointed out that the Israeli occupation also aims, through such trumped-up story, to shrink the fishing zone which became only two miles after it had reduced it to three miles after the war. It hailed the civil and humanitarian institutions for organizing an international campaign to support the Gaza fishermen against the Israeli violations, expressing its willingness to provide them with all information that can be utilized in this solidarity campaign. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ISM Gaza Strip video

Gaza Sea… Bullet for Each Fish

Shaimaa Mustafa, IOL

JULY 22: A Palestinian fisherman shows his catch July 22, 2007 in Gaza City http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m53078&hd=&size=1&l=e http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1237705786228&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout April 1, 2009 GAZA CITY —Sea has always been Ibrahim Shahada's life. For years he used to join fellow fishermen heading to the shores with the first sun beams. Today, the 50-year old Gazan says the word sea has become a synonym of fear and death. "We are now terribly terrified every time we try to get into the sea," Shahada told IslamOnline.net. "it's not that we fear the rolling sea waves, but the much more dangerous Israeli war machines yearning for a chance to shoot at us." Along with the 40km Gaza seashore, Israeli military ships keep roving to threaten any Palestinian boat that dares to get any deeper into the water. "As soon as we log into the sea, we face a sudden burst of machine gunfire rattling from their military ships," Shahada said. "Many of us opt to get back to the shores." Abu-Lou'ai Shehata, a Palestinian fisherman in his fourth decade, says he escaped the Israel death machines with a miracle. "I survived with a miracle after an Israeli shell hit my boat few days ago," he told IOL. "Shooting fishermen is now a daily routine for Israelis that my family presses me to end my career." Just last week, a Palestinian fisherman was injured when Israeli naval boats opened fire on fishermen who gathered at the beach near the Beit Lahyia town in the central Gaza Strip. Last October, Andrew Muncie, a Scottish human rights activist, has filmed the Israeli navy firing machine guns at unarmed Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of the Gaza Strip. The footage, taken on September 6, showed an Israeli gunboat engaging fishing boats while international observers hold their arms in the air and scream for them to stop firing. During the past 12 months, Israeli naval forces have killed eight Palestinian fishermen. Struggle Not only the Israeli fire that turns fishermen life into a nightmare. There is also the Israeli restrictions and the stifling siege that leaves them struggling to make ends meet. "Even If we managed to escape the Israeli fire, we usually end up with few fishes that barely make up for the price of our boat fuel," Yasser Ramadan, another fisherman, said. "We r lucky if any money was left to bring food to our tables." The blockade Israel imposed on Gaza since 2007 is causing severe shortages of fuel and gas supplies - the backbone of the fishing business. Helpless and desperate, the fishermen are even using cooking oil to run the engines of their boats. Worse still, now after the Israeli 22-day offensive on Gaza which ended last January, fishermen say their boats and fishing gear have been damaged so much that many can't fish any more. "My boat was damaged by the Israel fire. I can not afford to repair it anyway," Shehata says. Under the Oslo Accords, signed in 1993, Palestinian fishermen have the right to sail up to 20 miles from the Gazan coast. After the latest offensive, Israel has reduced this limit, however, to only three miles. Shehata says that the real death for any fisherman is to stay at shores while his livelihood is right in front of him, but inaccessible. "I'm a sailor who can't sail. I'm a fisherman who has not tasted fish for months," he lamented in a sad voice. Shahada, the elderly fisherman, is filled with grief that being caught between Israel's fire and blockade, his longtime profession is sinking. "We used to hunt from 60-70 fish kgs a day. Today, we hardly get 5 kgs. "The good old days has gone."

[Bombing of Gaza Port]

Written by Vittorio Arrigoni for Il Manifesto

From the text
The Diaphanous Faces of Ghosts Demanding Justice

This is only an extract referring to the bombing of Gazan port. You can read the whole text posted on the FGM website on Sunday, 04 January 2009 10:56

The place is devastated by flames, there have been cannon shots coming from the sea and bombs raining down from the sky all morning. The same fishing boats we accompanied into the open sea just a few days ago, well beyond the six miles imposed by Israel in their illegal and criminal siege, are now reduced to charred wrecks. If the firefighters tried to put out the fires, they’d instantly become the targets of the F16’s machine guns – this already happened yesterday. After this massive attack, after having made an exact estimate of the dead (if this will ever be possible), the city will have to be rebuilt over a desert of rubble.

Israeli helicopters and navy continue to fire on Gaza’s port

Posted on the ISM webpage on: December 30, 2008

The shelling of Gaza’s port continued on the evening of December 30th, as Israeli Apache helicopters began firing rockets on the area and Naval vessels continued their ongoing shelling.

Eva Bartlett, a Canadian human rights worker, heard and witnessed the attack from a building 150 meters away. She reports that the first explosion began at 9:18 pm. For the next half hour, the Naval ships and Apache helicopters continued firing intermittently. At 9:57, the intensity of the attack increased and more than 15 shells and rockets were fired in quick succession, with the Apaches specifically targeting the landing dock and the breakwater. Eyewitnesses in the area report that a Port Authority office and a boat anchored in the port were destroyed. The rockets and shelling continued into the night, while Israeli drones could also be heard circling overhead.

Gaza city port, the only port for the whole of the Gaza strip, houses a large number of Palestinian fishing boats on its piers. Many of these boats have also undoubtedly been damaged in the heavy shelling, further destabilizing the already fragile fishing industry upon which Gazans have been heavily reliant since Israel imposed its blockade on the strip in June 2007. The extent of the damage, however, is at this time indeterminable, as the continued presence of the warships in the harbor makes any assessment impossible.

This is the second time that Gaza’s port has been destroyed by Israeli bombing since construction began in 1999. Israeli Navy warships previously bombed the port in 2002, under the pretext that it could be utilized for arms smuggling. Repairs on the port were agreed upon in negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2005, after illegal Israeli settlements were withdrawn from Gaza, with the hope that an open sea port would not only provide a much-needed boost to Gaza’s economy, but would also function as an important symbol of Palestinian independence.

The Palestinian dream for the port – an independent harbour that would enable Gazan’s to freely import and export, creating jobs and freedom from Israel’s control of all Gazan borders – was, however, never realized. Whilst the port was repaired, Israel’s illegal control of Gazan waters continued unabated; illegally preventing Gazan boats, including fishermen, from venturing farther than 6 miles from shore, maintaining the imprisonment of Gaza. This oft-denied Israeli policy was exemplified most recently on Monday 29th December, when the Israeli Navy attacked the Free Gaza boat, “The Dignity”, in international waters as it attempted to carry 3 tonnes of desperately-needed medical aid into Gaza’s now-ruined port.

The destruction of the port has rendered humanitarian missions such as these even more difficult. Should further boats manage break the Israeli blockade, there is now nowhere left to unload

Journal: Attacks last night in Gaza [Port]

By Sharon in Gaza

This is an extract from her journal referring only to the attacks against the Gaza Port. You can read the whole journal posted on ISM webpage on the December 29, 2008.

In Gaza I went to see the Kabariti family in the port area, who you will recall hosted us for Christmas Eve. They confirmed the entire Gaza coast was shelled all night from about 1am, with the shells apparently coming from Israeli ships too far out at sea to be visible. We could see this happening from the top of Al Awda hospital, counting 14 shells in a row at one point to the little port where the Dignity docks. Any boats linked to the government were bombed, as well as several which weren’t, including that belonging to human rights defender Dr Eyyad Saraj. When the extinguisher boat tried to put out resulting fires, it was bombed. The port offices were bombed. The Kabariti family, whose 6 children range from 4 to 18 years old, had spent a frightened night and appeared exhausted. As they talked to me this morning, another missile hit the port across the road.