The joy of fisherman Ahmed Al-Hassi was not complete by the recovery of his boat, which was confiscated by the Israeli navy about a year and a half ago in the offshore of Gaza City, after it attacked the fishermen´s boats and arrested his son and another fisherman who was on board that boat, which was returned without a motor and without fishing equipment, and in a deplorable state after the sabotage deliberate to him.
Al-Hassi was waiting for his boat to return with his full equipment in the hope that he would sail it again off the coast of the Gaza Strip in search of his livelihood, which was disrupted for a long time after the confiscation of his boat, but the occupation was overwhelmed by his joy as with a number of fishermen whowere returned their boats after they were attacked by Israeli boats and took Those on board were arrested at the port of Ashdod, before they were released and the boats remainconfiscated.
Since the beginning of July July, the Israeli authorities have returned 40 of the approximately 70 boats they have been detaining for months and years, in a judicial decision taken by Palestinian and Israeli human rights centers, in a move that was considered part of the recent understandings between Hamas and Palestinian factions. On the one hand, the Israeli occupation, on the other hand, is sponsored by the Egyptian intelligence services, Qatar and the United Nations.
Since the seizure of his boat, he and his four children have been unemployed, with no material income for his family of 13, he said. He said his son was released hours after his arrest when the incident occurred.
He said his boat needed more than $12,000 to get him back to work, especially since the occupation deliberately stole his engine and the fishing equipment on board and did not return it. He pointed out that some of the engines he returned to the fishermen were no longer operational after being sabotaged by the occupying navy.
He said his children sometimes have to go out fishing with a number of fishermen to find a living, as they do not have their own boat to work as they did before it was confiscated. Noting that they barely collect enough personal daily allowance from their work with others.
He pointed out that he will not be able for the time being to return the boat to work, especially since it needs a large restoration and huge amounts that he will not be able to provide easily, and this process will need a long time under the prohibition of the occupation introducing materials for the restoration of boats for 13 years on the pretext that they are used in the manufacture of Missiles, explosives, etc.
The collapse of the fishing boat industry
Since the imposition of the blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2006, the Israeli occupation authorities have been banning the introduction of dozens of types of materials that prohibit them under the name "dual use", including materials used in the manufacture of fishing boats such as The Viper Glass, which is an important material in the process of making boats, and by The boat manufacturing process has been suspended for several years, especially after the smuggling of limited quantities from Egypt through tunnels or the coastal strip has been halted.
This is another obstacle for fishermen who want to renovate and renovate their boats, or to build other boats that can keep up with the development factor to reach long distances at sea, especially as the occupation allows fishermen to enter 12 and 15 nautical miles, al-Hassi said. He noted that the ban on the introduction of these substances has greatly affected fishermen and boat workers and they have become unemployed.
A number of fishermen, especially the old ones, are working in the process of making these boats, but they joined the unemployment lists after becoming unemployed to help them with their living conditions, joining hundreds of thousands of workers living on relief humanitarian aid from various international institutions that have witnessed In recent years, there has been a limited reduction in the number of actions taken against Palestinians in general, and Gaza in particular.
Youssef Bakr, a former boat-making fisherman, points out that their profession has been completely suspended in Gaza and no longer exists, after the occupation prevented the introduction of materials used in the boatmaking process, and even the process of restoration. He pointed out to Jerusalem that all those who worked in this profession became unemployed and lived below the poverty line.
He pointed out that about 500 citizens work in this profession, between the labor force and among traders importing the supplies of the process of making boats, pointing out that each of them supports a large family, all of them have become without a material income, and their families are living tragic life conditions.
Bakr said the cost of making a single boat is more than $15,000, with all its equipment. It costs more than $5,000 without any equipment (i.e., just its chassis).
He expressed the hope that the understandings of calm would achieve a real breakthrough that would allow the re-entry of such materials as announced in the media. He pointed out that the reintroduction will revive their hopes of restoring their industry to its brightness, and improving their economic conditions that will enable them and fishermen to improve their living conditions, although that improvement will be limited under the general conditions witnessed in the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing Israeli blockade.
Violations and collective punishment
The suffering of the fishermen does not stop at these measures, but extends to daily attacks and violations on the ground against them by the occupying boats, whose machine gun fire hardly ceases to target their boats off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
According to identical statistics, some 4,000 fishermen and more than 1,000 boats of various sizes are working in the Gaza Strip sea, where the occupying forces are constantly narrowing them through various violations.
Fishermen chasing for a living hope that israeli attacks against them will depend on the high risk to
their lives, as they are constantly subjected to a series of attacks by the navy to restrict them to make a living.
According to fisherman Hassan Abu Riala, the occupying forces deliberately target them on a daily basis and pursue them even within the space they set for them to sail. He pointed out that they repeatedly sabotaged their nets and fishing equipment, and expelled them from the sea under the barrage of fire, with the aim of tingling them, and depriving them of earning their day´ sustenance.
He adds, the fishermen´s livelihood in Gaza is filled with blood, and we often lost martyrs and some of us were injured and arrested, and the occupation is not content with military attacks through shootings and arrests, but also detains our boats and confiscates them for no reason but that we are looking for what keeps us and our families alive.
He said he owns a boat that has been under fire more than once and was slightly damaged, although he is returning to sail there in search of the livelihood of his family of eight. "We don´t know what to do to live and earn our livelihood without death following us even in our livelihood, we don´t have a weapon, we don´t have missiles, we just want to live like us like human beings," he said.
According to a statistics from the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, the Israeli navy injured 15 fishermen and arrested 28 others off the coast of Gaza during the first half of 2019.
According to the report, 204 shootings were recorded, compared to 196 in the same period last year. 15 fishermen were injured, compared to 14 in the same first half of last year.
The report shows that the Israeli occupation forces arrested 28 fishermen, including 3 children, compared to 47 last year, including two children. He noted that the majority of the detainees have been released, except for six of the 28 who remain in detention.
He noted that the number of seizures of boats and fishing gear was 10 times, 11 boats were confiscated and in nine cases boats and fishing gear were vandalized.
The center said that the occupation in the first half of this year increased its violations against fishermen, compared to the same period last year. Accusing him of systematic and gross violations of the rules of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
The Center considered these violations to be a continuation of "collective punishment of Palestinians, violation of their right to life, physical integrity and human dignity, and violation of their right to work and an appropriate standard of living".
Those violations affected the right to work and access to marine wealth, the right to life, security and personal safety, the right to protection from arbitrary arrest and the right to protect private property.
He pointed out that the occupying forces had disrupted the growth of the structure of the Palestinian economy, including the fishing sector, through an organized policy to acquire palestinian natural resources and deprive them of their investment.
Manipulation of fishing space
In recent months, the occupation has repeatedly manipulated the fishing area on flimsy security grounds, invoking each time that Hamas and the factions are not committed to the agreed state of calm, despite its repeated attacks against the Gazans.
Gaza´s coastline is about 45 kilometers, 2 miles from its border with Egypt and another 2 miles from the northern border of the Gaza Strip, and the occupying forces control the fishing area, sometimes 3 to 6 miles, and more recently with calm understandings of 9 and 12 miles, some up to 15 miles.
According to al-Mezan, the occupation has sometimes prevented full sea activity, often reducing fishing area to 6 miles.
According to fishermen´s testimonies, the current fishing area, often imposed, is a sand marine area where fish are limited, while these fish are found in rocky areas at a depth of approximately 12 nautical miles.
Despite repeated violations, fishermen hope this will be an opportunity to make up for their material loss of fishing in areas as small as six miles away in recent years.
Nizar Ayash, the fishermen´s captain, told Al-Quds that the occupation places large buoys to determine the distance allowed for hunting. He noted that there is a benefit from the expansion process but is not permanent, and is determined by the abundance of fish.
He pointed out that the number of boats that can sail 15 nautical miles, not exceeding seven, all of which are large boats "tow cranes", pointing out that the majority of boats and boats can not sail that distance because they are old and need modern cables, large quantities of diesel, and nets used in The hunt, the GPS devices are modern.
Ayash said the boats returned without engines or fishing gear, and that the boats were deliberately vandalized, costing the fishermen an average loss of $10,000.
He pointed out that the reality of fishermen has become in a very bad situation at all levels, especially living ones, and they have become one of the poorest strata of society in the Gaza Strip, due to the blockade and repeated Israeli attacks against them.
The new fishing area does not include the northern areas of the coast, which are more abundant with fish than others and are consistently preferred by fishermen as an area teeming with fish species and large quantities available there, where sailing is permitted only 5 to 6 miles, and they are pursued by sea barges in an area of 3 miles in Sometimes.
Fisherman Fadi Al-Hebel said they reach 12 miles and fear being shot, noting that access to this distance allowed them to fish differentfish, allowing them to increase their self-income and their families, albeit in a limited way.
"The larger the fishing area, the more abundant lye fishermen will be able to catch and the less material loss they can afford to fish," he said. hoping to allow them to sail this distance in the northern restricted area.
He said the occupation has been reducing the fishing area reached under the Oslo Accords for more than 10 years, depriving fishermen of good fishing, affecting their livelihoods and incurring significant material losses.
According to a statistics from the Center for Balance, in the period when fishermen are allowed to sail for 6 miles, 60% of the fishermen of about 4,000 fishermen are in the profession, collecting from 1,000 to 1,800 tons per year, which is small because of the reduction of fishing area.
Akram Mekdad, a fish vendor at The Hesba market in Gaza, notes that since the expansion of the fishing area, and the fact that fishermen have been able to catch fairly abundant fish, the markets have become more active despite the difficult economic situation in Gaza.
He pointed out that Gazans prefer to buy fish on poultry and other meats, pointing out that their prices are often cheaper than meat, and therefore increased demand, especially on sardines, which is considered "eat the poor" in Gaza, when the price per kilo of it is only 6 or 5 shekels.
He expressed the hope that the fishing area would remain the same, as this would have a positive return for fishermen and vendors, and that the introduction of prohibited substances would be allowed to improve and develop existing boats, which would improve the economic situation.
