In recent months, the Israeli navy has escalated its harassment of and assaults on the fishermen in the Gaza Strip. Following Israel's unilateral disengagement in 2005, Israel restricted the fishing area available to the Palestinian fisherman of Gaza to three nautical miles instead of the 20 nautical miles previously agreed upon between the Palestinian National Authority and the Israeli government. Recent practices by the Israeli military vessels against the fishermen have included: blockading them inside the "permitted" area; opening fire on the fishing boats; and sometimes, forcing the fishermen to strip naked, leave their boats at sea and swim towards the gunboats for the purposes of arrest. Once on the Israeli vessels, fishermen have been blindfolded and taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod where they were interrogated and their boats were seized. Most fishermen are later released and dropped at the Erez crossing to walk back to their cities, and sometimes fishermen are transferred for a longer detention in Israeli prisons.
Fishing is a major source of livelihood in the Gaza Strip
On 25 May 2009, Adalah sent an urgent letter to the Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, and the Military Advocate General, Avichai Mandelblit demanding that they prohibit the opening of fire on the Palestinian fishermen by the Israeli navy, and further to increase the fishing area to its agreed upon range. The letter was sent by Adalah Attorney Rana Asali.
In the letter, Adalah explained that, according to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 3,000 Palestinians work as fishermen, and another few thousand work in related areas such as manufacturing fishing equipment and selling fish. Fishing and its related industries provide the basic necessities of life for approximately 35,000 people. Due to the economic stranglehold placed on Gaza, and the lack of alternative sources of livelihood, hundreds of fishermen are forced to risk their lives in order to fish. Israel has not provided any written or even verbal information to the fishermen on the area is which fishing is permissible and where it is prohibited. The fishermen learn the rules based on their daily experiences and, as much as possible try to avoid approaching the areas that come under fire from the gunboats.
Legal aspects
In her letter, Attorney Asali argued that despite Israel's unilateral disengagement, Israel is still effectively occupying Gaza as well as its territorial waters. Israel continues to maintain complete control over the sea space of the Gaza Strip, which enables it to control the activity of the Palestinian fishermen, restrict the movement of the boats and decrease according to its discretion the area of the permissible fishing range. Accordingly, Israel is obliged to comply with the Hague Regulations – 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention – 1949.
Under international law, military forces may attack civilian targets only if the attack serves an immediate and vital military need, that is weakening or defeating the enemy, or bringing the fighting to an end. In the case of the Gaza fisherman, there is no "military necessity". The Israeli navy's attacks on the fishermen and their boats are prohibited. The fishermen are attempting to secure their livelihoods and this type of infringement constitutes collective punishment and violates the prohibition in international law against deliberately targeting civilians.
The Israeli navy's actions also violate the rights of Palestinians in Gaza to work and live in dignity contrary to Israel's obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which it ratified in 1991.
Serious damage to natural resources and the environmental
The reduction of the area in which Gazans are allowed to fish leads to over fishing in shallow coastal water. This leads to damage to the fish breeding environment and the risk of extinction of certain types of fish. This manipulation of the sea environment contradicts the ICESCR, which stipulates the right of peoples to control their natural resources, and prohibits infringement on their sources of livelihood.