AS Abdullah Assi tethered his fishing nets on Tuesday, his son Ahmed was tending to more important repairs, plugging the bullet holes in the hull of the family's weathered skiff.
The damage had been done the night before after a run-in with the Israeli navy, west of a buoy that marks the Gaza fishing fleet's de facto outer limit. It is here, at the apex of a triangle demarcated by the Israeli Defence Force, that many Gazan fishermen run the gauntlet of patrol boats, risking life and livelihoods for the lure of waters not fished for years.
"They shoot at us many times," said Mr Assi from under the shade of a thatched hut in the decrepit harbour that serves as Gaza's fishing port. "They are not necessarily trying to kill us, but they don't want us to move outside the buoy. The problem is, that's where the bigger fish are, and we have not been allowed to reach those grounds for seven years."
Frustrating the fishermen is the fact that the area currently enforced by the Israelis is a sliver of the territory sanctioned under territorial agreements signed after the Oslo accords in the mid-1990s. It is a triangle within a triangle -- less than one-third of the waters they once legally fished.
The Gaza coastline is roughly 40km long, but the current fishing zone is a 12km-wide area in the centre of the strip, stretching 6km out to sea.
"We used to go 12km out," Mr Assi said. "And the catches were much better."
Israel has remained adamant that the restrictions are necessary to prevent incursions from Gaza through its southern coastline and to halt smuggling runs to Egypt, which navy officials say have been regularly used to resupply militants with weapons and criminal gangs with drugs.
"None of it is true," claimed Mr Assi, who took over the family business from his father 30 years ago. "The only time anyone has gone outside the limits was in June when the Israelis let them and that was the Fatah people fleeing from Hamas during the troubles."
Occasionally the cat-and-mouse game has turned deadly for members of the 3500-strong fishing community.
Last October, old-timer Hani al-Najjar was shot dead by a patrol boat crew as he set his net near the outer border.
The Gaza fleet was then banned from taking to sea for three months after the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who military officials feared could be whisked away across the Mediterranean.
A fisherman's collective at the port claims 11 of its members have been killed or wounded in the past three years...[more]
![[bilin.jpg]](http://bp2.blogger.com/_1tk0c4Dzgbs/RuITs7r7SUI/AAAAAAAADUg/mh9M66uBdzU/s1600/bilin.jpg)
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
On the wrong side of the separation fence
Repeating old mistakes
Friday September 07, 2007 04:18
by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC
