ISM Gaza | Fishing Under Fire
21 June 2009
Two fishermen, Ashraf Subhi Sadallah and his brother Abdulhadhi Subhi Sadallah were abducted by IDF on Tuesday 16th June 2009 and released on the same day after being interrogated. Their boats (hassakas) and net remain in IDF custody to this day.
At 6 a.m. the brothers set out in three boats (hassakas) in the region known as Sudaniyya in order to collect the net which they had placed the night before. The net was 400 metres away from the shore. As soon as they arrived close to the net IDF gun boats shot in their direction. The brothers were asked to remove all their clothes and to jump in the sea, which they did. Once in the sea they swam for 30 metres towards the patrol boat. The gun boat moved back 470 metres and the brothers then were forced to swim this distance. They were handcuffed and blindfolded and taken to Ashdod where they were interrogated and told that if they visit the Al Waha region again they would be arrested and tried in court in Israel. The brothers, however, state that they were not in the Al Waha region but rather in Sudaniyya. The brothers were released at Erez border on the same day at 8 p.m.
Without boats (hassakas) and net the Sadallah brothers are unable of working and have lost the tools to their only source of income.