PCHR weekly report 29/10-4/11: 1 fisherman wounded by israeli gunfire

excerpt from PCHR weekly report No. 43/2009 29 Oct.- 04 Nov. 2009

Wednesday, 4 November 2009


At approximately 11:30, IOF gunboats fired several shells at a Palestinian fishing boat which was approximately 300 meters from Rafah port. Belal Mohammed Khalil al-Najja, 23, from the Swedish village, sustained wounds by a bullet to the abdomen. Al-Najjar was transferred to Abu Yousif al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah for treatment. Medical sources described his wounds to be moderate.

Ministry: Gaza fisherman shot by Israeli navy

Published yesterday (updated) 04/11/2009 22:01

Gaza – Ma’an – Israeli naval forces shot a Palestinian fisherman on Wednesday whilst he was fishing near Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

The Agriculture Ministry in Gaza stated that fisherman Bilal Muhammad An-Najjar, 20, was shot in the stomach by Israeli naval officers.

The ministry stated that An-Najjar was fishing one km from the Rafah shore line and was taken to Abu Yousef Najjar Hospital, describing his injuries as moderate.

Additionally, the ministry remarked that the Israeli occupation holds responsibility for the fishermen’s lives.

Israeli military officials said they were investigating the claim.

Gaza fishermen come under Israeli fire

Gaza - Ma’an - Gazan fishing boats in the As-Sudaniyah and Al-Wusta areas of the Gaza coast came under fire Friday morning as Israeli warships patrolling the waters launched an attack.

Witnesses reported seeing sporadic attacks on boats in the area since sunrise, with shells heard all along the coast.

While no injuries have been reported, intense explosions caused streets to empty and citizens to take shelter in their homes.

Palestinian fishers in Gaza Strip demonstrating for right to earn living without daily harassment

 posted on PNN

26.09.09 - 21:14
Gaza / Maher Ibrahim – Fishers in the Gaza Strip are asking the international community for protection against daily Israeli aggression both at sea and on the shore.
The fishing industry has been effectively destroyed, Rami Abdo said today, by the Israeli war on the Strip and the continuation of aggression and harassment. Fishing boats and nets are often confiscated and destroyed, fishers are arrested.
Abdo, a spokesperson for the Popular Committee against the Siege said that the direct loss in revenue for each day of closure of the sea is up to 70,000 USD. Other losses are estimated at 30,000 USD per day.
Some 3,500 Palestinians fish in the Gaza Strip with about 700 boats. Engineer Salah Al Jihad from the Department of Fisheries in Gaza’s Ministry of Agriculture, said that 70,000 people live off the sea, and hundreds of those who fish with small boats are not registered with the Ministry. These are concentrated in the northern Gaza Strip where Israeli forces have killed three since the end of the major attacks in January and wounded 22 others. The Ministry has recorded 166 files of complaints of partial and total damage to boats.
The reign for boats along the Gaza beach which runs about 40 kilometers is down from more than 20 nautical miles to only five kilometers, and in some areas that number shrinks to three.
The Ministry of Palestinian Agriculture said today that if a fisher exceeds the boundary, he is subject to being shot, his boat destroyed and his fishing nets cut. Prison, interrogation and heavy fines are also possibilities.
Recently the Palestinian fishing industry was paralyzed to the point that demonstrations became routine in front of offices of international agencies and representatives. Demands include that the United Nations, European Union and the international community at large intervene to lift the naval blockade, and to demand a ceasing of fire and an end to the repeated violations of the right to fish.

Human rights monitoring organizations report that Israeli violations and aggressions against fishers are contrary to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966.
Head of the Union of Fishermen in the Gaza Strip, Nizar Ayash, said, “The Israeli targeting of fishermen is part of the ring of closure. The marine problem includes fishermen being detained and violently beaten, both in the sea or near the beach in Gaza, Khan Younis, Rafah, and the central and northern Gaza Strip.”

Fishing in the Gaza cesspool

Gaza fishermen (Photo: Karl Schembri/Ramattan)

Gaza fishermen (Photo: Karl Schembri/Ramattan)

Gaza fishermen (Photo: Karl Schembri/Ramattan)

Gaza fishermen (Photo: Karl Schembri/Ramattan)

Gaza fishermen (Photo: Karl Schembri/Ramattan)

Shelled buildings along the Gaza skyline (Photo: Karl Schembri/Ramattan)

Said Saidi, had to give up on fishing after 40 years (Photo: Karl Schembri/Ramattan)

Mohammed and Said, both gave up fishing (Photo: Karl Schembri/Ramattan)

Gaza fishermen are allowed a mere two miles out at sea to earn their livelihood. Karl Schembri joins them out at sea as Israeli gunboats looming on the horizon fire warning shots


Karl Schembri

Wed Sep 24, 2009

GAZA CITY, Gaza (Ramattan) - The reeking stench overwhelms you immediately on the sandy Gaza beach, polluted by thousands of litres of untreated sewage dumped into the sea every day since the sewage treatment facilities were destroyed in the January war.

The port greets us with fishing boats completely destroyed in the war and others abandoned on the shore in front of the ruins of boat houses shelled during the Israeli bombings.

A dozen fishermen are on the beach repairing some of their boats with the little material they have. Bullet holes dot most of the sea craft lying on the golden sand.

We board a boat in the port of Gaza with former fishermen who have given up the job they had been doing all their life. The reasons why became clear even before they started telling their stories.

On the horizon, Israeli gunboats could be seen waiting ominously for any craft that dared approach the two to three-nautical mile limit allowed to Palestinians to fish and sail. Approaching that limit, indeed just setting sail, is a risky venture.

“We have turned this fishing boat into a tourist boat, even though there are no tourists. But we always have hope,” Mohammed said as we were leaving port.

Mohammed and his colleagues could no longer make a living out of fishing within the permitted zone. Fish worth catching lie in deeper seas, but Palestinian fishermen have seen their fishing zone diminishing from the 12 nautical miles agreed to in the Oslo Accords to six miles after the 2000 intifada, and now to a measly three nautical miles, although Israelis often shoot at whoever goes beyond two miles.

“There is no radio communication between Israelis and Palestinians on the sea; the communication is by shooting,” Mohammed said. “The fishermen are always on their own out here, away from the media and the public, and whenever there is trouble with Israel they are the first ones to bear the brunt.”

His colleague, Said Saidi, a refugee forced out of the harbour town of Jaffa in 1948, had been fishing for 40 years before he had to give up his livelihood and passion.

“My family has always consisted of fishermen who know and love the sea, but it is now impossible,” he said. “There are no fish to be caught in here.”

As we sailed further out we could see the Israeli ports of Ashkelon and Ashdod up north. We suddenly hear warning shots being fired at a fishing boat heading towards the forbidden lines.

Equally prohibited is the Egyptian side to the south, where Israeli gunboats too lie waiting for any approaching vessel making it impossible for anyone to enter or leave the 25-mile-long coastal strip through the sea. A ship carrying activists from Cyprus intent to break the siege earlier this year was held up by Israeli forces, with all the people on board arrested and eventually deported.

The crippling restrictions on sea faring are yet another facet of the Israeli siege on Gaza; home to 1.5 million Palestinians denied entry or exit by land, sea and air. This makes fish – a long-time source of staple food for Gazans – ridiculously expensive given its scarcity in what should otherwise be an abundant resource.

Meanwhile thousands of litres of sewage keep being pumped into the Mediterranean as pipes and other material necessary to repair the treatment facilities remain banned from entering the strip.

Close to our boat, fishermen on board a battered long line fishing trawler wave at us smiling upon seeing us, making the victory sign with their hands.

But the view of the Gaza skyline from out there was desolate with the bombarded buildings overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

On survival

excerpt from In Gaza blog post 

The other day I re-visited the family of martyred Mohammed al Attar, killed while net-fishing off the shores of Sudaniya, northern Gaza. They are poor, desperately-so, and have a string of martyrs in their family, including Mohammed’s mother and one brother.
I’d wanted to see them again and found the time a couple of days ago. I’d wondered how this Ramadan and ‘Eid were for them, with another martyr in their thoughts, and one less source of income for their extended family. But I didn’t need to ask, for it was fairly obvious: there was no celebration, no happiness. They were plodding on, surviving, living to die.
Mohammed’s father Nadi had said on an earlier visit that life had little point for him:
“They killed my wife and sons, I don’t care if they kill me or not. There’s nothing I can do, it’s not in my hands,” he’s said of the Israeli army attacks and life under a siege unimaginably brutal.

Fishermen under fire in Al Waha area, northen Gaza Strip

excerpt from Ma'an news article

In the Al-Waha area of the northern Gaza Strip, fishermen said they came under fire from Israeli warships. However no injuries were reported.