Zakaria Bakr, head of the fishermen´s committees in the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, said today, Sunday, that the occupation boats since 2006, with the start of the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, have killed about 13 fishermen inside the sea while practicing their work, and wounded About 200 others, part of them were permanently disabled by the rockets and bullets.
Bakr stated in an interview with the Voice of Al-Aqsa local radio in Gaza, that the occupation arrested about 700 fishermen during the same period, and destroyed 185 boats inside the sea and confiscated 170 others in the port of Ashdod.
He pointed out that in every aggression against the Gaza Strip, fishermen´s facilities are bombed without exception, noting that its climax was in the 2014 war, during which the occupation destroyed the fishermen´s rooms and stores with all their equipment, nets, engines and spare parts for their boats.
Bakr said: "What the fisherman owns inside the sea in the Gaza Strip is (zero miles) due to the pursuit of the occupation boats and the reduction of fishing areas during the rounds of escalation.
The official of the fishermen´s committees pointed out that the greatest danger threatening the fishing sector in its entirety is the land blockade on fishing materials, indicating that since 2012 until now, no boats have been made as a result of the occupation’s prevention of wood and fiberglass materials under the pretext that they are dual-use.
Bakr stated that about 250 boats need maintenance and there are no meters of gauze in the market to work on maintaining them, and this explains the continuous sinking operations and the capsizing of boats at the gates of the fishermen´s berths, indicating that the fishing sector needs 300 engines and there is not a single engine in the market, and the Red Cross tried for years. Supplying them to the Gaza Strip, but the occupation is still stalling the process of introducing them.
He said: 95% of the fishermen´s boats have become in need of permanent maintenance and are not suitable for use, noting that the fishermen own 100 boats for lighting the sea at night, powered by land engines that have been reproduced.
