Image Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2007-03-26.
Daily shelling forces fishermen to consider begging to feed their familys
Rafah Today via BBSNews 2007-03-26 -- By Mohammed Omer. In an act which only adds to the chaos in the Gaza Strip these days, over 50 fishermen were recently arrested by Israeli Occupation Forces while fishing along the southern Gaza beach of Rafah. Palestinian sources said that most of the fishermen were released later on.
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Palestinian fisherman collecting his nets in Rafah.
Image Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2007-03-26. |
Nonetheless, the daily shelling continues from the Israeli Occupation Forces' warships constantly patrolling Gazan waters. This has made it difficult for fishermen to go as deep and often as they need into the Palestinian Mediterranean sea, veritably the only source of income to thousands of fishermen.
Abu Hamam, 42 years old, reported: "My five children are expecting me to come back with food for them, some fish to feed their stomachs. It's useless; my boat was damaged by Israeli gunfire." He added: "What is their goal in targeting us? We are peaceful fisherman civilians whose aim is to feed our kids. But now, due to the fishing restrictions and the targeting of fishermen, we can no longer feed them."
Abu Hamam, the Rafah-based fisherman, returned to his house without one single fish. With no food and no money, he can no longer afford the daily expenses of his family. He confided: "I have no money, no bank account, no income; all I have is my simple house and fishing boat, the boat has been damaged and I have no funds to repair it or buy a new motor, so what should I do? Should I start begging in the streets?" he questioned.
"No, no. We will not beg. Our dignity and pride still exist," affirmed one of his friends, a fisherman luckier than Abu Hamam to not have been fishing off the beach when the shooting took place.
Meanwhile, deadly fighting between Fatah and Hamas has left a toddler dead in northern Gaza
According to Kamal Adwan hospital medical sources, the two year-old Hassan Abu Nada was killed by crossfire, his grandmother wounded. The little boy was the fifth person to be killed in internal fighting in the last two days. Rami Abu Srour, also killed, was the reason for fighting to errupt in the northern part of Gaza.
The clashes continued after Hamas declared, in a leaflet, that Abu Srour caused his own death when a mortar home made rocket exploded as he prepared to fire it.
Most of the other deadly cases involved Palestinians killed as a result of family conflicts, versus conflicts of political parties. The situation was grave in northern Gaza by the time I arrived there near sunrise. Fighting had taken place and ambulances had started moving throughout the camp, evacuating the causalities.
Tragically, it seems that random fire never differentiates between the young or the elderly.
Mohammed Omer is a young journalist/photographer in the Gaza Strip. He and his family have a very rough time in living day to day and they have lost much. In October of 2003, one of Mohammed's younger bothers, Issam, was injured and had to have a leg amputated. Later in the same month another younger brother, Hussam Al-Mouhagir, was killed in his home; shot to death by the Israeli Army that occupies and regularly devastates Palestine. These stories are written by Mohammed who knows no peace, only the continued devastation forced upon civilians who have little voice in the world. Mohammed has covered the Occupied Territories for several years. In 2006 Mohammed won the New American Media National Ethnic Media Award for best Youth Voice. Visit Mohammed's Web site, or write to him to get a more complete picture of what is really happening that main-stream news sources rarely brings to its audience. We are proud to feature articles from Mohammed Omer here at BBSNews, his reporting is some of the only original, on the ground reporting available from the Israeli Occupied Territories.
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