For a week, dozens of fish traders in the besieged coastal enclave have been incurring heavy losses due to Israel’s ban on exporting fish from Gaza into the occupied West Bank.
Last Wednesday, the Israeli authorities claimed that the decision came as a result of attempts made by the West Bank-based Palestinian traders to transport about 20 tons of Gaza fish into Israeli cities.
Speaking to The New Arab, the fish traders said that they have been struggling to keep their families afloat, mainly as they lost the main source of marketing their fish.
Mohammed al-Haj, a Gaza-based fish trader, complained that he incurred about $US 2,000 in losses in less than a week, stressing that if the ban lasted any further, he will not be able to deal with the basic needs of his family as well as his workers.
“I hardly make $US 200 a day (…) I pay part of them as expenses of the fishing operation and transportation,” the 35-year-old man told TNA, saying that “the Israeli decision is unjust and it will turn us to poor people.”
Usually, al-Haj explains, local traders resort to exporting high-priced fish to the West Bank in light of the poor purchasing power of the Gaza market due to the high rates of unemployment and poverty.
“Banning export fish means that we will sell our fish in local markets with fewer prices, which means that we will not be able to deal with the basic needs of our work,” he stressed.
Since 2007, Israel has imposed a tightened blockade on the coastal enclave after Hamas, which won the legislative elections in 2006, ruled the territory.
For years, the fishermen were prevented from fishing more than 3 nautical miles off the Gazan shore. But, in 2019, Israel decided to allow fishermen to reach 15 nautical miles, according to the “calm understandings” with Hamas to stop the Great Return March that launched in 2018.
However, the fishermen are suffering because of the obstacles issued by the Israeli naval forces as well as the sudden bans, based on the political situations with the Gaza-run Islamic Hamas movement.