Israeli navy shooting Palestinian fishermen boats

Israeli shooting palestinian fishermen boats:

"Israeli shooting palestinian fishermen boats"

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Two injured in Israeli attacks on Palestinian fishermen in Gaza
Source: Ma'an News Agency
Date: 01/09/2008
Bethlehem – Ma'an – Two Gazan fishermen were injured when Israeli naval vessels fired on Palestinian fishing boats on Monday.

Palestinian medical sources told Ma’an that 32-year-old Husam Sultan was hit in the head with shrapnel. His wounds were described as serious. Ninteen-year-old Muhammad Sultan was lacerated by shrapnel in various places on his body.

The Israeli navy opened fire at the fishermen off the Gaza shore near the former site of the Israeli settlement Dugeit, west of the Palestinian town of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip.

This Israeli attack is an apparent violation of the ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip which went into effect on 19 June. The violation came on the first day of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

Another Israeli naval assault was reported earlier in the day in the day by international human rights activists accompanying Palestinian fishermen.
The Free Gaza movement reported live bullets fired near Gaza City, where five internationals were accompanying fishing boats during daily work in Gaza territorial waters. The group said the boats were "several miles offshore" when Israeli ships opened fire.


Activists from the Free Gaza boats who have remained in the Strip joined Gazan fishermen Monday morning as they launched their boats in order to monitor Israeli Naval aggressions.

There have been repeated reports of warning shots, arrests and boat shadowing by the Israeli navy patrolling Gazan waters.

Israel enforces a "Fishing Limit" that is 6 nautical miles (11.1 km) from the Gaza shore. The international waters boundary and the 1996 Oslo accords boundary both state that Gaza waters extend 20 nautical miles from the Gaza coast, and the 2002 Bertini agreement (signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority) has the boundary lying 12 nautical miles or 22.2 km from the Gaza coast. The current "Fishing Limit" has been imposed by the Israeli navy since October 2006.

The Israeli navy began limiting traffic going in or coming out if the Gaza Strip starting in the mid-1990s when the Oslo accords were signed. All traffic was halted since 2007, when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip.

The Free Gaza activists will be joined by others from the International Solidarity movement in Gaza, who will record and document all instances of Israeli naval aggression and harassment.

The activists announced Monday that they would be present on any fishing boat at any time along the entire Gaza coast from Monday morning onwards. They said that they hoped the presence of internationals would deter further Israeli aggression.

The fishing industry employs some 3,000 individuals, who rely on traveling deep enough into the Mediterranean to catch sardine as they migrate from the Nile delta northwards every spring.

The Free Gaza movement has focused its efforts this year on exposing and halting what they call the illegal Israeli control of Gazan coastal waters. Since Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, and claims not to be an occupying force in the area, the movement attests that Gazans should have control over their own ports.

The movement successfully landed two boats in the closed Gaza port on Saturday 23 August. Israeli army and government officials had initially planned on preventing the ships from landing, but made a last minute decision to allow them to pass. The government later called the event a "one-time" deal, and promised it would not allow other ships through into Gaza.

When all but 9 of the Free Gaza activists left the Gaza port for Cyprus in Thursday 28 August, they brought with them seven Palestinians, who for the first time in years did not have to ask Israeli or Egyptian permission to leave the Strip. The Palestinian government in Gaza stamped the passports and travel documents of those leaving, who arrived in Cyprus the following day by ship.



A message from Vittorio Arrigoni
Dated September 3, 2008
Source: FreeGaza.org

Tomorrow another fishing day in high sea has been organised, on board with us we will have the first german television channel and some arab journalists.

World has to know, to open eyes and react facing what happens just few miles away from Gaza coasts.

In the attached video, shot by one of my partner on board, it's clearly visible how our fishboat was bombarded from machine-gun fire coming from an Israeli war ship.

These crimes against humanity, of which Israel is responsible, occur almost daily, murders and woundings of Palestinian fishermen whose only guilt is trying to sail at a distance from the coast bigger than 3 miles, this limit being an illegal one imposed by Israeli authorities, although the Oslo Agreements established that the maximum limit is equal to 20 miles from the coastline and although the Bertini Agreement, stipulated in August 2002 between UN and Israel, set this distance at 12 miles.

Some days ago our presence on board as internationals avoided death or wounding of Palestinians, we wish that tomorrow the presence of television cameras will work as a deterrent for any criminal Israeli action.


We, nonviolent people, will take at a distance not bigger than 10 miles from the coast, some nonviolent fish boats which activity is one of the few nourishment sources for a destroyed economy as the gazan one.


In 90's, when fish boats could sail from the Strip coast and reach a distance equal to 12 miles, fishermen could bring inshore, sell and also export almost 3.000 tons of fish every year.

In 2007 just 500 tons of fish were fished from more than 3.500 professional fishermen along the 40 kms of the Gaza Strip coast; among these 3.500 fishermen just 700 are still working today in an economical field that was able to sustain at least 40.000 people as mechanics, fishmongers and thousands of families of local fishermen.

It's always more difficult to find fish in the sea close to the Strip coast, pollution and extreme exploitation made this water sterile; this is one of the reasons why tomorrow I will take the fish boats far from the seashore hoping for another miraculous fishing; being able to sail 20 miles further there would be the chance, in spring, to meet school of sardines migrating from the Nile delta to the Turkish sea, while staying at less than 6 miles from the coast is almost impossible to find big group of fishes. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Israel never allowed palestinian fishermen to sail and reach the 20 miles established by the agreements. Gaza fishermen state that they cannot go at a distance bigger than 2,5 miles without being exposed to the risk of Israeli shooting, the risk of having boats and nets destroyed while Israeli patrols lead them inshore: a situation carrying on since 2003 and that worsened during the last years with the presence of Israeli rockets and helicopters used against the fishermen. According to the Rafah Fishermen Union, Israeli war boats patrol the sea, in the southern part of the Strip, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, under the pretext of keeping security and fighting weapons traffic. During 2007 more than 70 fishermen were arrested, their boats destroyed together with nets and fishing equipment. For months thousands of fishermen didn't have the permission to leave the port.

"In a report published by Israeli Bet'selem some fishermen stories were collected. Isma'il Basleh was fishing, on the first of January 2007, with his brother Samir and his friend Aymen al-Jabur. In the distance they saw an Israeli warship coming close and, after having stopped at less than 30 metres from them, starting shooting in the air. The Israeli captain, then, ordered Isma'il to follow them for 6 km, to turn off engines and swin in frozen water towards them. But the warship was slowly moving away and Isma'il was about to drown. The rest of story reported by Bet'selem is about bound arms and legs, about threats and intimidations, about sleep deprivation and demeaning and inhuman treatments. Adnan al-Badwil described as well his misadventure: he was fishing with his brother at 5 am, they had just pulled up the nets with the fish when they heard som e shooting in the dark. The boat, hit, started oscillatine and both of them fell into the water. Three people of the crew were wounded and treated for three days in hospital. But, despite all the risks for their own lives, gazan fishermen still go out with their boats and try to go over the 3 km limit, to survive.

Nowadays they can just use rowing boats, since there is no more fuel in Gaza not being due the high oil price, but because Israel don't allow the entrance of fuel in the Strip pushing forward an embargo which appears as a general punishment for a whole population."

Tomorrow we will dedicate our fishing day to three fishermen who, some days ago were arrested and, against Ramadan'laws, forced by the soldiers to eat and drink breaking in this way their fast.


We will mainly dedicate it to two fishermen recently wounded, Mohammad Ani Assultan,
19 years old, and Hussam Assultan di anni 32 tears old, hit in his head and still in critical conditions.

These crimes can no more be kept under silence.


Please, spread the video

And stay, in shore as offshore, human.

Stay human.


Vik

Vittorio Arrigoni.