A lack of international action against Israel murder of Gaza fishermen

By Wafaa Al-Udaini

Israel have been held responsible for the deaths of three Palestinian fishermen, which may lead to a new round of fighting in Gaza, so before the Israeli regime plays victim, what was the significance of the event which just took place?

The Ministry of Interior in the Gaza strip stated, in a press conference, that the three slain Palestinian fishermen were killed as a result of an explosive Israeli quadcopter last Sunday. 

The investigation that was conducted led the Gazan authorities to consider three possible causes of the accident/crime: an accidental Israeli explosive resulting from explosives left in the sea; a Palestinian test rocket that may have hit the fishermen's boat; the Israeli navy that may have shot at them.  

Firstly, the investigation revealed that the boat carrying the slain fishermen was outside the range of the rocket fired; hence, this hypothesis was discarded.  

It was also found that, about half an hour before the explosion, two other fishermen had found an Israeli quadcopter in their nets and had handed it over to Maritime Police. The quadcopter had an explosive device attached to it, the Gazan Ministry of Interior stated. 

Another quadcopter was found in the fishing net of the three dead fishermen and was found to be completely identical to the one found by the other fishermen. 

The spokesman of the Ministry of the Interior in Gaza, Iyad Al-Bozom, said in the press conference that the forensic report on the bodies of the three martyrs indicated that they were killed as a result of the severe explosive shock by a non-fragmentation device, and no metal fragments were found in their bodies. 

Al-Bozom further added that this confirms that the explosion was caused by a device similar to the package carried by an Israeli "Quad-Copter" drone, which was found by fishermen half an hour before the deaths of the slain fishermen, near the site of the explosion. 

The ministry then released an animated video recreating what had happened, and distributed pictures of the remains of the quadcopter. This was then circulated throughout Palestinian media and has been used to demonstrate to the people of Gaza what had occurred.

Two brothers, Muhammad Hijazi Salih al-Lahham and Zakaria Hijazi Salih al-Lahham, and their cousin Yahya Mustafa Saleh al-Lahham, were murdered during their work on their boat in the Khan Yunis coast, in a mysterious explosion. They were all married with children and their only source of livelihood came from fishing. 

Mustafa Allaham, the father of Yehya, one of the martyrs, said that "we are satisfied with the ministry's investigation and we call on all international institutions and bodies to work to protect Palestinian fishermen, and to punish Israel for its crimes against us." He also added that  Yehya is the father of newborn twins.   

Abu Ahmad, Mohamed and Zakaria's father said that "Mohammed is 28 and has 5 children and Zakaria is 25 a father of one." Abu Ahmad added, painfully, that they had been fishing for 10 years and depend on it for their livelihood.  

The grief-stricken father and uncle also wish to try and sue the occupation forces in the international criminal court, extracting a fee from the Israeli regime which would go towards helping the impoverished families who are left now without any source of income.  

Gaza has approximately 4 ,000 fishermen, of whom only 800 work on some 700 boats. Approximately 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza make a living directly or indirectly from fishing, according to official Palestinian statistics. 85% of them suffer from extreme poverty in light of the persecution of the occupation, the scarcity of resources, the exorbitant prices of fuel, and their inability to upgrade their boats with modern equipment, as the occupation prevents materials, needed to build boats or fix them, from entering Gaza. 

The Palestinian resistance factions stated that they hold Israel fully responsibility for the killing of the three fishermen, and that this was considered as a violation of the ceasefire agreement that is between resistance factions and the Israeli occupation. They stated that such crimes should not be tolerated and remain unpunished. 

The analyst and writer Iyad Al-Qara confirms that the occupation bears responsibility for the crime of murdering other three fishermen a few days ago,  it is part of the hidden security war as the occupation seeks to cause a security defect. 

The occupation denied its responsibility for targeting the fishers immediately after the incident, but after the ministry of interior released the results of the investigations, supported by evidence, they have remained silent and are failing to produce a comment. 

Al-Qara also stressed that the occupation denying has no value with the available evidence: "It is a misleading denial about not carrying out an attack while it [Israeli] traps an area in which Palestinian fishermen have to operate through waters covered with booby-trapped drones."

At least 18 Palestinian fishermen have been shot dead and 40 were injured by the Israeli naval gunboats during the blockade of Gaza. Hundreds have also been detained, according to Nizar Ayyash the spokesperson of the fisherman's ministry.  

If an escalation now occurs as a result of Israel’s measures against Fishermen in Gaza, it should be understood that the crimes of the siege are the main factor.

Wafaa al-Udaini is a Palestinian journalist based in Gaza.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

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