Gaza-

Palestinian fisherman Mohammed Abu Ghanem lived hours of terror, naked, lying on the deck of an Israeli warship in the open sea, off the shores of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

The chapters of the horror story began at two o'clock in the morning last Sunday, when Muhammad was with two other colleagues practicing fishing, on board a small boat "Hasakah", near the Palestinian-Egyptian border, in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Abu Ghanem (24 years old), told Al Jazeera Net, "We were in the designated fishing area, about 3 kilometers from the border with Egypt, when Israeli boats surrounded us, and their weapons opened fire on us without introduction."

Fisherman Muhammad Abu Ghanem tells hours of terror at sea (Al-Jazeera)

Maritime terrorism

Muhammad was shot in the right hand and one of his fingers was broken, while his colleague Jaber Bakr was shot in the leg, and he says, "3 Israeli boats surrounded us, amid screaming from the occupation soldiers, and speaking in Hebrew, most of which is incomprehensible to us."

The occupation soldiers forced Muhammad and his two colleagues to jump into the sea and swim towards one of the boats, stripped them of their clothes, and threw them naked on the deck of the boat until seven in the morning, blowing their bodies in the cold night winds, according to Abu Ghanem.

After they drowned the fishing equipment and fish, they took the boat with the three fishermen to the port of Ashdod, inside occupied Palestine in 1948. Abu Ghanem says, "After we were held for hours in a room inside the port, they took us to the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing, and subjected us to interrogation on charges of crossing the permitted area for fishing, and attempt to smuggle.

The investigation period was terrifying, according to Abu Ghanem’s description, before the occupation authorities decided to release them the following evening, without their boat, which remained imprisoned, as well as dozens of other boats, as well as their equipment.


He said, "Although they were sure of the falseness of their allegations, and that we are just fishermen seeking to obtain the food of our families, they detained Hasaka, from which six families of about 50 people live."

forbidden area

The Oslo agreement grants fishermen in Gaza the right to practice fishing to a depth of 20 nautical miles, but the occupation began to manipulate this area since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000.

The occupation forces use water buoys that fishermen call “phantas”, which they plant at different distances inside the sea, and they form what looks like a border with an imaginary line of fire, where anyone who approaches them enters the circle of injury, arrest or death.


The Fintas, according to Abu Ghanem’s description, is an “iron tower” about 3 meters high, topped by a lamp that emits intermittent red lights, and is equipped with surveillance cameras.

The danger in these floats (the jars) in which the occupation draws the borders of the “forbidden zone” is that they are volatile and constantly changing, which puts the fisherman in constant danger. Abu Ghanem says, “It is forbidden for fishermen to pass these bonnets, or just approach them up to 300 meters.”

Israeli warships roam the sea off Gaza around the clock to monitor this area, and in the last period intensified their pursuit of fishermen's boats and opened fire from their machine guns towards them.


Data from the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (a non-governmental organization) indicate that, since the beginning of this year, the occupation forces have committed 98 violations against fishermen at sea, during which they arrested 23 fishermen, including 6 children, injured 9 fishermen, including 3 children, and seized 7 fishing boats.

naval blockade

The coordinator of the Union of Fishermen's Committees in Gaza, Zakaria Bakr, described what fishermen are subjected to as "real terrorism", which begins with the siege and prohibition of entry of equipment necessary for the fishing profession, and does not stop at prosecution, arrest and confiscation, and may even lead to death.

Bakr said - to Al-Jazeera Net - that the occupation, with its complex procedures, has transformed the Gaza Sea into isolated "cantons", which emit "the smell of death", surrounded by danger on all sides.

Using buoys, the occupying power divides the sea, which extends about 40 kilometers in width, into two areas: the first extends from the north of the Gaza Strip to Gaza City, in which fishing is allowed to a depth of 6 nautical miles, and the second from Gaza City to the Palestinian-Egyptian border in the city of Rafah in the south is permitted. Fishing up to 12 miles for small boats "hasaka" and up to 15 miles for large boats "launches," according to Bakr's detailed explanation using a map he keeps on his mobile phone.

Zakaria Bakr: The occupation has turned the Gaza sea into "cantons" fraught with death (Al-Jazeera)

Bakr confirmed that the fisherman goes out of his house to go to the sea in search of a livelihood for his children, and he does not know whether he will return to them with fish or a "lifeless body". The fishing profession in Gaza "is fraught with dangers, and even the life of the fisherman is not safe."

Bakr identified 3 demands in order to improve this profession in Gaza: providing international protection for fishermen, unifying the fishing area according to signed agreements, stopping the ongoing state of Israeli manipulation, and allowing the import of equipment related to the fishing profession that Israel has prevented from entering since 2006.

The number of fishermen has declined in the past years for reasons related to the occupation and blockade, and many have turned to work in other professions, and the Agricultural Development Association estimates that 3,800 fishermen are currently working in the fishing profession in Gaza.

Following the experience of injury and arrest, the fisherman Abu Ghanem does not intend to return to work at sea again, and says that he was saving money and preparing himself for marriage, but everything changed after he was now unemployed after the confiscation of the boat.

Khaled Al-Habil, who started his life as a fisherman in 1981, said that "fishing in Gaza has become a living drenched in blood."