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Gaza fishermen: A life under attack

Israeli naval forces have repeatedly opened fire on Palestinian fishermen, who already struggle to make ends meet.

'Fishermen used to be able to go to Egypt, Libya, Lebanon,' Abu Mohammed el-Hissi remembered sorrowfully. 'Today we cannot do that. Even fishermen are in Gaza's prison. Israel restricts us in everything we do, and Egypt treats [fishermen] even worse when we're working in the south.'
By Patrick Strickland and Dylan Collins
Published On 10 Mar 2015

Gaza City – Abu Mohammad el-Hissi spent his whole life working on fishing boats before eventually becoming head of the Gaza-based Palestinian Fishermen’s Society.

Due to the eight-year Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza, the 70-year-old Hissi says Palestinian fishermen can no longer make a decent living. “This work isn’t enough to provide for a family,” he told Al Jazeera.

Whether or not fishermen bring in a big catch, operating the boat each day requires roughly 800 litres of fuel. “This runs fishermen about 4,200 shekels ($1,080) and sometimes they don’t catch nearly enough to cover the operational costs,” Hissi said.

Although Israel agreed to respect the fishing zone as six nautical miles in the August 26 ceasefire agreement that put an end to last summer’s 51-day war in Gaza, fishermen and human rights groups alike accuse Israel of regularly violating that condition.

An Israeli military spokesperson said the amount of space allotted to fishermen is determined by “security threats” such as “shipments of weapons, some of them headed for Gaza”.

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“Just last week, we announced another foiled shipment of materials headed for Gaza that would have enabled Hamas to build more rockets,” the spokesperson told Al Jazeera. “The naval blockade is lawful and necessary in order to maintain the security of the state of Israel.”

Yet fishermen should be allotted at least 20 nautical miles, according to the 1993 Oslo Accords agreement signed between Israel and the Palestinian leadership. Israeli authorities have continually shrunk the fishing zone’s size in recent years, particularly “after its military operations in the Gaza Strip”, explained Sarit Michaeli, director of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

“The most important impact is on their livelihoods,” Michaeli told Al Jazeera. “If Israel, on the one hand, says it is a security risk, [fishermen] have to be provided an alternative.”

Boat owner Khamis Abu Saddeq, 51, explains that Israeli naval forces often arrest fishermen who get too close to the six-mile borderline, and others are fired on with water cannons or live ammunition. 'I was arrested once two years ago. They took me to Ashdod and interrogated me,' he recalled, referring to a coastal city in southern Israel. 'They held my boat for six months before returning it.'
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'The world has to understand that Palestinian fishermen are like fishermen anywhere else in the world,' Abu Saddeq lamented as his friend and shipmate Ahmed made dinner. 'I have eight children and three of them are studying in university. I have to provide for them and this is my only work.'
Before the war in Gaza last summer, Israeli naval forces fired at Palestinian fishermen in the six-mile nautical zone at least 177 times, which is 'nearly as much as in all of 2013,' according to the humanitarian charity Oxfam. In late January, Israeli forces sunk a Palestinian fishing vessel and detained five of its crew.
Recently married, 20-year-old Mahmoud el-Hissi said that with just nine nautical miles 'the fishermen in Gaza would be rich men' and explained that he only makes 75 New Israeli Shekels ($19) for every three 24-hour shifts at sea. 'But recently it's been less because there just aren't any fish,' he told Al Jazeera.
Hissi's son Mohammed is the captain of the ship. 'I've been working on this same boat since 1996, and this is the worst our situation has ever been,' he told Al Jazeera. Most fishermen have become dependent on international aid in order to make ends meet.
Between January 27 and February 9, Israeli naval forces opened fire on Palestinian fishermen reportedly working within the six nautical mile zone at least 17 times, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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Waiting for his shipmate Murad to finish cooking breakfast, Ahmed el-Hissi recounted the last time the ship was stopped by Israeli naval forces. 'A few months ago, they pointed their guns at us and made us all strip down and jump into the water,' he told Al Jazeera. 'It was freezing!'
Shukri (left), another crew member, sat down for breakfast with his shipmate Murad and explained that the fishermen work for a portion of the day's catch, which they sell in the markets after returning to land. 'Our situation is great,' he remarked sarcastically. Motioning out to the sea, he said: 'Look, there is an Israeli navy ship there, and there is one over there too! They're not even moving at top speed. If he wanted, he could be on top of us in two minutes.'
Ahmad (left) and Sameh (right) run the the gears to haul in the ship's first load of fish, only to find it a disappointing catch.
Munir Abu Hassira, a seafood distributor and owner of the popular al-Salam seafood restaurant, said that the blockade has crushed his business. 'We used to be able to sell our fish inside Israeli and Egyptian markets, as well,' he recalled. 'The last few years the borders have been closed so much and the price of seafood fell a lot. We also cannot sell in the West Bank like we used to.'
'We're all from the same family, the Hissi family,' Sameh told Al Jazeera. 'We try to take care of each other, but there's no money to be made. I have five kids at home. My oldest is about to graduate high school. He's smart and should go to college. But how am I supposed to afford it?'
Mahmoud, Ahmad and Murad stitch together broken sections of a net as they stretch into the 18th hour of their 24-hour shift.
After a long night's work, fishermen set up shop at Gaza City's port to sell their share of the catch. Alaa Tartir, director of al-Shabaka Palestinian Policy Network, argued that Israel employs a 'strategy to keep the Palestinian economy paralysed' through the blockade and harsh restrictions on movement. 'Fishing, as a source of employment and income for Gazans, is perceived by Israel as a threat and that's why this sector and the fishermen are always under attack,' he told Al Jazeera.