172 violations of fishermen´s rights since the beginning of the year

172 violations of fishermen´s rights since the beginning of the year

Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights monitored 172 violations against Palestinian fishermen by the Israeli occupation during the first half of this year.

The Center indicated in a statement, on Saturday, that the marine sector in the Gaza Strip is one of the sources of the Palestinian economy, especially the fishing sector that provides job opportunities for fishermen and workers in related professions, such as boat manufacturing and maintenance, equipment and nets maintenance, fish trade and related From transfers and others.

"The marine sector participates in supporting the gross national product, and it also contributes to supporting the population´s food basket," he said.

He pointed out that this sector was subjected to an organized process of destruction, through the continued violations of the occupation forces, as it pursues fishermen at sea, shooting towards them, expecting the dead and wounded among them, arresting them, destroying and confiscating their equipment, and sometimes closing the sea in front of maritime activity, It limits fishing spaces and prevents the introduction of necessary marine materials and equipment in general.

The violations of the Israeli occupation forces are concentrated in the main patterns, which are restricting the fishing area permitted to work for the fishermen, shooting at them while they are on their boats at sea, trapping the dead and wounded in their ranks, chasing the fishermen and their boats at sea, and arresting them, and finally seizing their boats and existing equipment On board, sabotaging fishing nets, generators and light signals.

These violations were reflected in the numbers of workers in the fishing sector, as the number of fishermen and workers in trades related to fishing for the year 2019 in the Gaza Strip reached (5606) workers, among whom (3606) were fishermen as mentioned in a fact sheet issued by the Al-Mizan Center on Israeli violations against fishermen in The Gaza Strip and its impact on the economic situation 2019.

While previous statistics of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics indicated that the number of workers in the same sector in 1997 was 10 thousand.

Because of these continuous violations, workers in general, and fishermen in particular, have become among the poorest groups in Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip, which in turn affects the entire human rights of these workers and their families, as well as the food basket of the general population.