Tag: Fishermen - Page 4 - International Solidarity Movement

A long, bloody January in Gaza

5th January 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Civil Defense crews work to clear the rubble left by an Israeli airstrike on 31 January. (Photo by Rosa Schiano)

It was a bloody beginning of the new year for the Palestinians of Gaza who, in addition to suffer from more and more difficult socioeconomic conditions, continued to face Israeli military violence.

During the month of January, there have been many attacks in the areas along the separation barrier surrounding the Gaza Strip, several incursions of Israeli military vehicles into Palestinian territory, precision air strikes, and almost constant attacks by the Israeli navy against fishermen.

The “bloody Fridays,” attacks against the youths of the popular resistance

Recently popular resistance has grown in the Gaza Strip. Every Friday hundreds of young Palestinians gather near the al-Shuhada cemetery, east of Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip. Sometimes they throw stones at Israeli soldiers and try to place Palestinian flags on the fence that separates the Gaza Strip from the land occupied by Israel in 1948. Israeli forces open fire indiscriminately at these unarmed young people, sometimes injuring or killing them. In January, two young Palestinians, included a child, were killed during the popular demonstrations. And at least 14 young Palestinians were wounded by gunfire in the course of these events. In the majority of cases, injuries to their lower limbs were reported.

On 2 January, Adnan Jamil Shehda Abu Khater, age 17, went to the al-Shuhada cemetery with some friends after school. The youths were about 500 meters from the fence. Israeli forces opened fire and Abu Khater was wounded by a bullet in the pelvic area. He died the following day.

Thaer Mohammed Rab’a. (Photo by Rosa Schiano)

On 3 January, in the same area, Israeli forces opened fire at a group of youths about 200 meters from the fence. Khaled Ibrahim Ouda, age 21, was injured by a bullet in the right leg. The same day, Thaer Mohammed Rab’a, age 25, was injured by a bullet in his left side while he was 300 meters from the fence. “They were competing in getting closer to the fence,” one of Thaer’s relatives said.

On 11 January, in the same area, the Israeli army opened fire at a group of youths who were close to the fence. Mahmoud Atef Mohammed Lubbad, age 22, was wounded by a bullet in the left leg. On January 24^th , the Israeli army opened fire at a group of youths who threw stones at the soldiers. Five young civilians were injured. Mo’aaz Munir Salman Ghabit, age 18), reported a moderate wound to his right thigh; Abdullah Mohammed ‘Abdullah ‘Awad, age 22, reported a moderate injury to his right hand and fracture; Salem Nafez Salem Abu Aser, age 21, reported a light injury to his right foot; Mohammed Naser Hasounah Abu Qamar, age 18, reported a light wound in the left arm; and Yehia Mahmoud Omer al-Jammal, age 20, reported a light wound to his back.

Belal Samir Ahmed ‘Aweidah, shortly before he was shot and killed by an Israeli military sniper. (Photo by Akram ‘Aweidah)

In the same day, a group of young Palestinians was gathering in an area north of Beit Lahia. They approached the border and throw some stones at the soldiers. Belal Samir Ahmed ‘Aweidah, age 19, from Beit Lahia, was killed instantly with a bullet to his chest. His mother described how her son was killed.

“We had lunch,” she said. “It was our last lunch. Then he dressed. I asked him: ‘Where are you going?’ ‘I will do a tour with some friends’, he said.”

Belal, along with other youths, was spending Friday afternoon taking photos near the fence and “looking at our occupied lands on the other side of the barrier,” his cousin Akram said. A sniper fired a bullet into his chest.

“I heard a bullet,” he said. “We ran away. Belal was running with me. He was running with the bullet in his chest. Then he told me, ‘Akram, Akram, I’m wounded,’ and fell on the ground.”

Akram showed us photos he had taken of Belal before he was killed.

On 31 January, the last Friday of the month, about six youths were injured close to the cemetery east of Jabalyia. Two of the wounded were hospitalized at Kamal Odwan hospital in Beit Lahia. Moaz Al Tlalqa, age 21, was wounded in the right thigh. The bullet caused a comminuted fracture.

“We want the end of the siege and we want to live like the other people in the rest of the world,” he said later. The second injured Palestinian, Mahmoud Muharram, age 24, had tried to reach the body of another wounded young man who was lying 20 meters from the fence. The soldiers told him to go away and to leave the body of the young man. Mahmoud refused. A soldier fired a bullet at his left leg.

“The soldiers took the Palestinian flag that we placed on the fence and stepped on it,” Mahoud said. Then he added: “This land was wet with blood more than water.”

In the courtyard of the hospital, several youths present Friday at the demonstration, included a young man injured the previous week, had gathered.

“Next Friday, I’m going to place the Palestinian flag over the fence,” one of them said.

“It’s dangerous,” an international activist said.

“Whatever is written in the sky, we will face it,” the young man replied.

Airstrikes and extrajudicial killings

In January, the Israeli air force carried out two attacks on agricultural and empty lands. Three attacks targeted Palestinian resistance sites. In one, a three-year-old child was injured by shards from the broken window of her house in Nuseirat. Two UNRWA schools and more than 20 houses were damaged in the same attack.

Extrajudicial assassination attempts are considered illegal under international law.

On 9 January, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a motorcycle rickshaw, or “tuk-tuk,” driven by two members of the military resistance east of Khan Younis. The two men were wounded and windows of the adjacent houses were damaged. A three-year-old child, Heba Abdullah al-Ghalban, was injured by shards of glass.

On 19 January, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a motorcycle driven by an activist of the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, in al-Saftawi street in the town of Jabaliya. The activist was seriously injured and a an eleven-year-old child was injured by shrapnel.

On 22 January, in another extrajudicial execution attempt, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a civilian car in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip. Both passengers, Ahmed Mohamed Khalil al-Za’anin, age 21, a member of the resistance, and his cousin Mohammed Yousif Ahmed al-Za’anin, age 22, were killed.

A Civil Defense truck sits outside the site of an Israeli airstrike on 31 January. (Photo by Rosa Schiano) — (Photo by Rosa Schiano)

On 31 January, at about 2:40 am, Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes in Rafah Safena, north of Gaza City, and on a building near Sheikh Zayed, in the north of Gaza Strip. In the latter case, many animals bred in the bombed structure were killed. During the same period, Palestinian armed resistance groups have launched several rockets toward Israeli territory, and the Israeli Defense minister threatened a new military offensive if the Palestinian government in Gaza does not prevent the launch of rockets.

Aggression against fishermen

In January, the Israeli navy carried out at least 13 attacks against Palestinian fishermen during which fishermen were forced to leave their work. All the attacks occurred within three nautical miles, except for one within six nautical miles. Most of the attacks took place in waters off the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Three fishermen were captured, included a child. During the detentions, the fishermen were interrogated, asked for their personal information and about places and people in Gaza. Their boats were confiscated.

Incursions

Israeli military vehicles carried out several incursions and “leveling” operations on Palestinian agricultural lands. In several cases the army opened fire at farmers and other civilians in Khan Younis and Beit Hanoun, forcing them to leave the area. In one incident, a civilian was wounded in Beit Hanoun 300 meters from the fence.

Two Palestinian fishermen, including child, kidnapped by Israeli forces off Gaza

27th January 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

On Monday, 20^th January, at about 6:00 am, Yousef Amin Abo Warda (age 18) and his cousin Ahmad Kamal Abo Warda (age 16) left their house to go fishing in a small boat without an engine.

Around 7:30 am they were fishing in front of the al-Waha area, in the northern Gaza Strip, and sank their fishing nets about three kilometers, or 1.6 nautical miles, offshore.

The arrest

Yousef said two large Israeli gunboats approached the fishing boats. While other fishermen were able to escape, for Yousef and Ahmad it was impossible, as their boat had no engine and was made heavy seawater seeping through a hole.

“Soldiers from one of the gunboats began shooting into the water, while the second gunboat quickly turned around us to create waves,” Yousef said.

The soldiers, as they usually do when they want to arrest fishermen, asked the two young Palestinians to undress, dive into the water and swim to the Israeli ship.

“I tried to get closer to their ship by swimming, but the ship moved away, so it became hard for me,” Yousef said. “I cried that I was tired moving my arms. I could no longer swim. The ship stopped. I went directly to the ladder that they putdown and I climbed on board the ship.”

“They made me kneel down and handcuffed my hands behind my back,” Yousef added. “They gave me some clothes and helped me put them on. They yelled to my cousin Ahmad to swim toward the ship. After about half hour Ahmad was sitting behind me. Our hands and feet were tied.” Moreover, the soldiers kicked the two fishermen on their back.

The arrival at the port of Ashdod

After about half an hour the ship reached the Israeli port of Ashdod. The soldiers removed the bandages from the fishermen’s eyes, as well as their cuffs, to allow them to get off the ship. On shore, the fishermen were again handcuffed and blindfolded. They were asked personal information: their names, place of residence, dates of birth, phone numbers. Some soldiers wrote this information in Hebrew on a paper. They asked Yousef to hold the paper in his hands and took a picture of him. Yousef and Ahmad were held in two separate rooms for about three hours. Then some soldiers took Yousef into the room where Ahmad was detained. They left them handcuffed in a room for another three hours. Then some soldiers made the fishermen get in a Jeep and brought them to Erez.

Erez and the interrogation

At Erez, the two fishermen were brought into a room and interrogated separately.

The investigator asked Yousef about his name, his family, his brothers, the age of his relatives, his work and other personal information. “The detective showed me on a computer a map of the city of Jabalia, he told me the name of the streets with specific details,” he said. “He asked me to select my house. He showed me a house in which some people working for Hamas and the al-Qassam brigades are living, and he asked me if I know them. I said no. Then he showed me other houses belonging to people connected with Hamas. He indicated more than two houses. He was trying to get information from me. I said I don’t know anything. He told me ‘Are you afraid? You are in a safe place and you can tell us everything. These people are trying to destroy your life, they are terrorists.’ He indicated about six families that live in my neighborhood”.

The investigator showed him also the beach and asked him on which part of the beach he usually works and where he keeps his boat. The investigator also asked him also about a police site in the area and how many people work there. Yousef replied that he knows only two policemen, to whom the fishermen show their permits on the beach, and that he doesn’t go to the governmental site. The investigator asked Yousef about a training site of the al-Qassam brigades. Yousef replied that he doesn’t know anything about it. “The investigator then showed me photos of some hasakat [small fishing boats] and asked me to whom they belong, and he asked me about some cafes on the beach and about the harbor. I told him that I don’t know anything about the harbor and I don’t go there. The investigator asked me ‘In Jabalia refugee camp there is a site that belongs to Hamas?’ I told him that I don’t know.”

“The investigator asked me what I thought of al-Sisi [commander of the Egyptian armed forces] and how the relation are between Hamas and al-Sisi. I told him that I do not follow the news or politics. I said,‘I go to fish and I go home’.

“The detective told me ‘If you are near the border and you get shot by the army, who will you blame and would you consider responsible?’ ‘You are responsible,’ I said. He replied ‘Hamas should be blamed, not us.’”

“The investigator then asked me, ‘What do you think of the Hamas government and what is your opinion of it in comparison with Fatah? Do you feel comfortable? Why did you elected them? You were happy under the Israeli government. Many Palestinians came here to work and had money. Can you compare your current life to the life in which Israel controlled Gaza?’ I told him that I’m only 18 years old. I can’t know and I have never gone to Israel.”

The investigator then asked Yousef about the tunnels , Yousef replied that he’s just a fisherman and has never seen one. Finally, the investigator asked him if he was feeling hungry. Yousef said yes. The soldiers brought him a shawarma sandwich and a Coke.

Yousef was then taken to another room and remained there for an hour. Meanwhile, investigators had questioned his cousin Ahmad. The soldiers then accompanied the two young fishermen to the Erez gate and told them to return to the Gaza Strip.

“They closed the door behind us,” he said.

Their relatives, frightened by the lack of news, had tried to contact the International Committee of the Red Cross and other organizations. They also asked some fishermen to look for them in the sea. But only around 11:00 pm did the ICRC inform them that the two had been arrested.

Escalation

The fishermen told us that since the beginning of 2014, there has been an increase in Israeli attacks on Gaza fishermen and the situation is worsening day by day. According to the fishermen, Israeli attacks increase during fishing seasons.

Loss and hope

The large family Abo Warda, whose name is also used to denote the area where it lives, includes about 35 fishermen, of whom about half have been arrested.

In November, two other young men from the same family, Saddam and Mahmoud Abo Warda, were also arrested. One of them suffered a light injury inthe abdomen caused by Israeli gunfire. Both were attacked while fishing on a boat without an engine, and were therefore unable to escape.

Several of the family’s boats have been confiscated and are currently in the Israeli port of Ashdod.

Yousef and Ahmad have lost their fishing nets.

“Before, we had three boats with nets,” Yousef said. “Now my family has only one boat and no nets. I ask the international community to stop these Israeli attacks.”

“Eight persons in this house are fishermen,” another fisherman said. “One of our boats was damaged during Israel’s ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’ in November 2012. We can’t fix it and need to buy new nets.”

Background

Israel has progressively imposed restrictions on Palestinian fishermen’s access to the sea. The 20 nautical miles established under the Jericho agreements, between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1994, were reduced to 12 miles in the Bertini Agreement of 2002. In 2006, the area Israel allowed for fishing was reduced to six nautical miles from the coast. After its military offensive “Operation Cast Lead” (December 2008 – January 2009) Israel imposed a limit of three nautical miles from the coast, preventing Palestinians from accessing 85% of the water to which they are entitled under the Jericho agreements of 1994.

Under the ceasefire agreement reached by Israel and the Palestinian resistance after the Israeli military offensive “Operation Pillar of Defense” (November 2012), Israel agreed that Palestinian fishermen could again sail six nautical miles from the coast. Despite these agreements, the Israeli navy has not stopped its attacks on fishermen, even within this limit. In March 2013, Israel once again imposed a limit of three nautical miles from the coast. On 22 May, Israeli military authorities announced a decision to extend the limit to six nautical miles again.

Palestinian fisherman kidnapped by the Israeli navy in Gaza waters

11th January 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

(Photo by Joe Catron) — (Photo by Rosa Schiano)

On Wednesday, 8^th January 2014, 27-year-old Palestinian fisherman Mohammed Sultan Al Khader had was arrested by the Israeli navy in Gaza waters. He had been fishing with his two brothers, Ahmad and Hamdi, on a small fishing boat, called a hasaka. Al Khader was released in the evening.

“We went fishing at about 6:oo am,” he said at his home in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. “Around 8.40 am, two Israeli speedboats approached our boat and the Israeli soldiers started shooting into the water.” The three brothers were less than one nautical mile off the coast of Soudanya in the northern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli soldiers shouted for them stop the engine and approached the front of their boat. “Stop the engine, approach us, raise your hands,” they shouted to the fishermen.

“Then they asked us to jump into the water,” Al Khader said. “I told them that my brother was too young and could not swim. I took off my dresses and jumped into the water. Some soldiers pulled me on board the Israeli speedboat. One of them asked me about the two other fishermen. I told him that the young one could not swim and the other one was sick and would have died. ‘I will let your brothers go home and I will take you’, he told me.”

The soldiers gave Al Khader some clothes. Then they forced him to again jump into the water and swim until he reached a large Israeli gunboat about 90 meters away. On board the gunboat, the soldiers blindfolded him, dressed him and cuffed his hands and feet. “Then I did not see what else was going on,” he said. “I could not see anything.” In the Israeli port of Ashdod the soldiers uncuffed his feet and removed the blindfold from his eyes. Then he was interrogated. During the investigation, the soldiers again cuffed his hands and his feet. He said there were two persons, one speaking Arabic and the other Hebrew. Investigators asked him about his name, age and phone number, personal details about his brothers and family, and other personal information. Then they hooded him and left him alone in a room for about an hour and a half. “Then five soldiers came, including one speaking Arabic,” he said. “He said, ‘I will show you some pictures and you will tell me what you see.'” He asked me on which part of the beach I used to work. He showed me pictures of it. They had pictures of each area. ‘Select one of the pictures’, he told me. I chose a picture of the beach area in which I work. The investigators told me to show a governmental site close to the beach and asked how many people work there. ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I don’t know anyone one working there.’ I said. He asked me how it was possible that I did not know anyone if I need to go there to get my permit to work as fishermen. I told him I only know two persons who came on the beach outside the governmental site. Then the investigator asked me about another governmental site of the civil defense. He asked me if the police there had guns. I told him that I did not know, that some of them did and others didn’t.”

“Finally, the soldier told me ‘Thank you for your help,’” Al Khader said with a hint of irony. “Then I was forced to talk to someone on the phone who asked me my name again, personal information, the number of my identity card. They left me alone for two hours. Then the soldiers came back with a paper which was written in Hebrew. They made me wear nice clothes, asked me to hold the paper and took a picture of me.” He didn’t know what was written on the paper. Another fisherman said it was likely tobe a medical report about his health condition that the Israelis could use in proceedings against them in court.

“They covered my face again, they handcuffed me and made me undress,” Al Khader said. “Then a soldier asked me to get up and sit down three times. Then they again made me wear the clothes. I was handcuffed, hooded and taken by car to the Erez crossing, at about 6:10 pm.”

Al Khader is married with a two-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son. He lives in a small, two-room, house, waiting to move into a new house under construction. “Due to the siege, there is lack of building materials,” a relative said.

Fishing is the only source of livelihood for his family, like hundreds of others.

These attacks by Israeli military forces are increasingly restricting the fishing area allowed to the Palestinian fishermen preventing them from accessing waters north of Gaza Strip. The practical limit imposed by Israel on waters north of Gaza is not six nautical miles, but one to two.

Moreover, it seems clear that through these detentions, the Israeli authorities are trying to obtain information about people and places in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip affects Palestinians’ economic and social conditions. More than 75,000 people depend on the fishing industry as the main source of their livelihood.

Background

Israel’s attacks on Palestinian fishermen in Gaza flout international conventions

7th January 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Charlie Andreasson | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

On Saturday, 4th January, the Israeli navby shot at five fishermen and their boat, a hasaka, three nautical miles from the shore of Gaza, well within the highly-restricted part of Palestine waters in which the occupation forces officially allow them to fish. Despite damage to the boat, and water that flooded it, Majed Baker, age 55, and his four relatives managed to return to port and get the boat onto shore. A total of nine bullet holes were counted, some below the waterline.

Previously, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Information in Gaza, the Israeli military had restricted waters in the north. It thereby expanded the nautical “buffer zone” by Israeli waters through military force, and without declaring its intentions in advance. Nor has it made any statement in retrospect. The restriction of the fishing waters in the north is confirmed by the affected fishermen. The same pattern can be discerned in the rest of the increasingly narrowed zone. According to Zakaria Baker, coordinator of the Union of Agricultural Workers Committees (UAWC)’s fishermen’s committee, all boats that tried to sail further than four miles from the coast have been attacked since the beginning of the year, and the “buffer zone” in the south, by Egyptian waters, has been curtailed drastically. This means boats in Rafah must sail north along the coast for some distance before they can venture into fishing grounds.

These restrictions affect the fishing industry severely, especially now, during the peak season. As a result of Israeli aggression, the total catch has fallen by 42% since 2000, and the number of registered fishermen has declined from about 5,000 in the 1980s to less than 3,000 today, according to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Attacks and shootings against Palestinian fishermen, sometimes resulting in fatal and other injuries, arrests and seizures of boats, and destruction of fishing gear, are common and documented by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Since neither the Palestinian fishing industry nor fishermen themselves endanger the State of Israel, these abuses cannot be understood as anything other than collective punishment, which violates the fourth Geneva Convention, Article 33.

Behind all the numbers and statistics lurk people. When an occupying power, in this case Israel, is allowed to continue to violate international conventions by the world community, it allows other nations to do the same. This erosion of established conventions is a threat to the people they are meant to protect, and can eventually affect relations between states. The attack on the five fishermen is therefore a concern for the entire international community, and not an internal matter between Israel and those living under its occupation.

Gaza fishermen suffer 85 percent income loss as Israeli siege, attacks continue

4th January 2014 | The Electronic Intifada, Joe Catron | Gaza City, Occupied Palestine

Small fishing boats, or hasakas, moored in the Gaza seaport. (Photo by Charlie Andreasson) — Small fishing boats, or *hasakat*, moored in the Gaza seaport. (Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

On 17 December, Palestinian fishermen and their supporters erected a tent — a traditional venue for protest, as well as celebration and mourning — inside the Gaza seaport.

“It was to highlight the situation, the crimes of the Israelis against fishermen here,” said Amjad al-Shrafi, treasurer of the General Union of Fishermen. “We wanted to send a message about the blockade against the fishermen and how we cannot fish freely.”

The protest, organized under the title Free the Holy Land Sea, ended two days later with the delivery of a letter to the nearby office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, demanding international protection for fishermen.

Over three days, hundreds of well-wishers visited a crowded tent decorated with banners and posters supporting fishermen. The organizations represented on its walls ranged from human rights centers to prisoner support groups.

Under fire

“One of our main goals was to push governments around the world to force Israel to give fishermen free lives and let us sail without any limits,” al-Shrafi said. “It’s our right to sail freely in our waters.”

“Another was to pressure the Israeli forces to release the boats and fishermen they have captured.”

Palestinian fishermen in coastal waters off the Gaza Strip frequently come under fire byIsraeli naval forces, which target their boats on both sides of a boundary imposed by Israel.

Israel deploys its gunships into Palestinian waters using an information technology infrastructure administered by Hewlett-Packard (“Technologies of control: The case of Hewlett-Packard,” Who Profits, December 2011).

Through its subsidiary, HP Israel, the US corporation won a contract to run the Israeli navy’s computer and communications network in August 2006 (“HP Israel wins navy IT outsourcing contract,” Globes, 14 August 2006).

The fishing area permitted by Israel, which doubled in size as part of the ceasefire agreement ending eight days of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and retaliatory fire by Palestinian resistance groups in November 2012, now officially reaches six nautical miles from the shore.

But fishermen say the Israeli navy often shoots at them and sometimes captures them and their boats well within the zone it ostensibly allows them.

Captured

“We were far from the prohibited zone, 500 meters away,” said Saddam Abu Warda, a 23-year-old fisherman whom the Israeli navy captured along with his 18-year-old brother Mahmoud around 9am on 10 November.

“They were shouting, ‘You must get out of here in five minutes.’ We had to cut the net to pull it out of the water. Then they started to fire bullets close to our hasaka [small boat]. As they came close to us, their boat looked like a big building with lights.”

The Abu Wardas’ small boat had no engine. “We tried to escape by paddling quickly,” Saddam Abu Warda said. “They forced us to take off our clothes and raise our hands. They were firing bullets in the air and in front of our hasaka. One soldier was shouting, ‘You have to leave your hasaka and get in the water.’ I was shocked. I couldn’t move. I didn’t know why.”

Finally, gunfire forced the brothers into the cold water. “They didn’t stop firing bullets over our heads,” Abu Warda said. “I was far from my brother. He started shouting, saying, ‘I am injured.’ He wasn’t able to keep swimming. I swam back to my brother to try and save him. His blood was [spilling] in the water. Then two small boats came close to us. They pulled my brother from the water. They didn’t take me.”

When Abu Warda reached the Israeli gunship, he lost consciousness after soldiers bound, hooded and kicked him. He awoke in a detention facility in Ashdod, a port in present-day Israel beside his brother Mahmoud, whose right abdomen was stitched by military physicians. The brothers said that Israeli bullets caused the wound.

During an interrogation after he awoke, an Israeli soldier tried to convince him otherwise. “I told him, ‘Three of your gunboats were around us. They were firing bullets. My brother’s blood was everywhere in the water. He was injured by your soldiers.’”

After a lengthy interrogation that continued both in Ashdod port and after their transfer to a detention center by the Erez crossing between Gaza and present-day Israel, Israeli forces released the Abu Wardas into the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun around 10pm — 13 hours after their capture. Their boat and its equipment remained behind.

“We have three hasakas in the Ashdod port,” Abu Warda said of his family’s prior losses to the Israeli navy.

Severe damage

The Abu Wardas’ experiences echo many more documented in a new report by thePalestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). The PCHR, which supported the Free the Holy Land Sea campaign, is translating the document — already published in Arabic — into English.

Over four years, from 1 September 2009 through 31 August 2013, the Israeli navy killed two fishermen, wounded 24, and captured 147, according to the report. The navy also seized 45 boats and destroyed or damaged 113 more.

The report also records the losses incurred by about thirty bombings of four fishing ports during Israel’s November 2012 attacks on the Gaza Strip, including damages to an additional 80 boats and destruction of a health clinic and a youth center used by fishermen.

“There was severe damage to different fishing facilities during the military offensive,” said Khalil Shaheen, director of PCHR’s economic and social rights unit.” At the ports in Gaza City, Middle Area, Khan Younis and Rafah, different facilities were targeted and destroyed.”

“The report also documents the impact of the total damage to fishermen and the fishing sector,” Shaheen added. “One of the main impacts was the loss of 85 percent of income in the fishing sector, as the result of access restrictions and the naval blockade.”

Casualties have continued to mount in the four months since the period covered by the report ended. The PCHR publishes regular reports on human rights abuses in Gaza. These reports indicate that Israel has shot at fishermen at least 37 times since September, as well as seizing six boats.

“I would like to thank all the solidarity campaigns who were involved in this action and show solidarity with Palestinian fishermen,” al-Shrafi said.

“We ask that the international community continue to pressure their governments, to ask for dignity and a free life for us.”

Joe Catron is a US activist in Gaza, Palestine. He co-edited The Prisoners’ Diaries: Palestinian Voices from the Israeli Gulag, an anthology of accounts by detainees freed in the 2011 prisoner exchange. He blogs at joecatron.wordpress.com and tweets @jncatron.