Gaza’s Ark Attacked

for immediate release
Gaza City – Gaza


At 3:45 AM Gaza time on April 29th, the night guard on board Gaza's Ark received a call to leave the boat because it was going to be attacked.
The guard left, but when nothing happened, he returned after 5 minutes. A few minutes later, a large explosion rocked the boat causing extensive damage. 
The boat sank part way and is now sitting on the shallow sea floor. The guard was not injured but was taken to hospital for tests.
Mahfouz Kabariti, Gaza’s Ark Project Manager, says: “The extent and nature of the damage are currently being investigated. We will provide an update when available.”
"Gaza’s Ark and all our partners in the Freedom Flotilla Coalition are considering our next move in response to this cowardly act of terrorism, but our position remains clear: Neither this nor any other attack will stop our efforts to challenge the blockade of Gaza until it ends," adds David Heap of Gaza's Ark Steering Committee.
"Freedom Flotilla boats have been sabotaged before. This attack comes as we were almost ready to sail. You can sink a boat but you can't sink a movement," concludes Ehab Lotayef, another member of the Steering Committee.
- 30 -

For information:
Ehab Lotayef +1-514-941-9792 <lotayef@gmail.com>

David Heap +1-519-859-3579  

Charlie Andreasson +970 (59) 8345327 

www.gazaark.org
@GazaArk
info@gazaark.org
#GazaArkAttacked

PCHR Condemns Israeli Escalation of Attacks against Palestinian Fishermen in the Gaza Strip

PCHR

Thursday, 27 October 2011 12:22

Ref: 107/2011

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the Israeli Navy's escalation of attacks against Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza Strip that resulted in damages to fishing tools and equipment, detention of two fishermen and confiscation of their boat. Besides, the two fishermen were questioned, cruelly and degradingly treated and prevented from sailing and working freely. PCHR calls upon the international community to immediately put an end to these violations and exert pressure on the Israel to stop the policy of fighting civilians, including fishermen, in their livelihood.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR and testimonies of eyewitnesses, at approximately 03:30 on Thursday, 27 October 2011, Israeli warplanes targeted a "container", which is used to store fishing equipment and tools. As a result, the container was completely destroyed and fishing nets and a water tank were burnt. The container belongs to Mohammed Mahmoud Abu Shammala, 56, from Khan Yunis. This attack took place when Israeli gunboats surrounded two fishermen on board of a boat, two nautical miles off Khan Yunis shore.  The Israeli naval troops opened fire at the boat and arrested Mosa Ibrahim Isma'il Abu Jayyab, 42, and Ahmed Omar Isma'il Taneera, 21, from Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, after forcing them to stop fishing, jump into the water and swim towards the Israeli gunboat. The Israeli troops confiscated the boat and fishing equipment and transported them to Ashdod Seaport in Israel, while the two fishermen have been detained so far.

The Israeli Navy has escalated attacks against the Palestinian fishermen in Gaza since the beginning of this year. These attacks have remarkably increased in terms of number and kind. Since the beginning of this year, PCHR has documented 67 attacks against fishermen, including 40 firing incidents, five of which resulted in wounding eight fishermen who were transferred to hospitals for treatment. Additionally, PCHR has documented five incidents of chasing fishermen that resulted in arresting 18 fishermen, and 14 incidents of confiscation of boats and / or damaging fishing equipment.

It should be noted that the Israeli Navy has imposed restrictions on fishermen at sea, including denying then the right to sail and fish since 2000. The Israeli Navy also minimized the area allowed for fishing in Gaza sea from 20 to 6 nautical miles in 2008; however, the Israeli naval troops keep preventing Palestinian fishermen from going beyond three nautical miles in Gaza sea since 2009, and sometimes chase them in this area as well. As a result, Palestinian fishermen are denied access to areas beyond the three miles, due to which they have lost 85% of their subsistence.

In light of the above, PCHR:

1- Condemns the recurrence of such attacks against the Palestinian fishermen, and believes that they are part of the escalation of collective punishment against civilians. Besides, they have been carried out in the context of fighting the civilians in their livelihood, which is prohibited under the international humanitarian law and international human rights law;

2- Calls upon the Israeli Navy to immediately release the detained fishermen and their boat, to stop the policy of chasing and arresting fishermen and to allow them to fish freely in Gaza sea;

3- Calls for reparations to the victims for the physical and material damages caused to fishermen and their property;

4- Calls upon the international community, including the United Nations agencies, to assume their legal and moral responsibility through an immediate and prompt intervention to stop all the Israeli violations, including the ongoing naval blockade and deprival of fishermen of over 85% of their livelihood by limiting the area allowed for fishing to three nautical miles.

[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.

In Gaza: Updates

By Eva Bartlett

These are only extracts referring to the bombing of Gaza Port. You can read the whole report posted on the ISM webpage on: January 1, 2009


Wednesday:
[...] The port, across from where I tried to sleep, was targeted, the Port Authority building destroyed and the dock repeatedly shelled, the impact of the shells some of the closest and most deafening I’ve felt yet, rivaling the shelling 30 m from my friends home in Jabaliya which we experienced three nights ago. The target: an olive orchard in the back yard of a fence-in neighbour’s house.
10:20 am: 6 more blasts, sets of 2, direction of the port
[...]
Tuesday:

8:57 pm

missile shot from Apache lands outside the apartment we are staying in tonight, hitting the Port Authority building just 150 m away.

9:18 pm

missile shot from an Apache hits the port, 400 m from the apartment we are staying in

*drones continue to fly over this building, and over the building which I visited one hour before (near the bombed Minister’s compound)

9:33 pm

2 shots from Israeli naval boats, targets as yet unknown

9:34

3 more shots

9:40

2 more shots; “They are aiming at the breakwater in Gaza’s harbour,” Mahfouz, a sailor living just down the road, tells me: “They are warning that they are out there. They want to show us their power. They did the same thing yesterday.” [Mahfouz received a shell beside his front yard two nights ago. His family –one teenage son and several young girls, is terrified.]

[the power cuts, I’m unable to continue updating and unable to know what is happening around me]

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.