Chief of the Gaza fishermen Nizar Ayyash announced that all fishing activities in Gaza waters would be suspended on Thursday and Friday in protest at the sinking of a fishing boat and the loss of a fisherman aboard it following a deliberate ramming attack by an Israeli gunboat.
Ayyash told a news conference on Thursday in Gaza Port that a search operation was launched to find the missing fisherman accusing the Israeli navy of deliberately sinking the boat.
He strongly denounced the Israeli navy’s daily aggressive practices against the fishermen who struggle to make ends meet and appealed to the international community and its concerned organizations to work on protecting Gaza fishermen against Israeli violations.
Dozens of fishermen citizens and relatives of the missing fisherman rallied yesterday morning to protest the Israeli navy’s wanton attack on the fishing boat.
An Israeli gunboat on Thursday morning rammed into a Palestinian fishing boat off the coast of al-Sudaniya area in northern Gaza causing it to capsize and one fisherman aboard it to drown. The victim was identified as Ahmed al-Hissi.
The Palestinian ministry of transportation issued a statement denouncing the Israeli navy for its persistence in attacking Gaza fishermen accusing it of deliberately tipping over the fishing boat.
For its part the Hamas Movement held Israeli government fully responsible for the repercussions of its ongoing arbitrary practices and violations against the Palestinian fishermen.
Its spokesman Abdul-Latif al-Qanua on Thursday condemned the attack on the fishing boat that led to the drowning of one fisherman calling it a “heinous crime and part of Israel’s systematic violations against the Palestinian fishermen.”
Qanua urged international human rights groups to state their positions on this crime and work on curbing Israel’s daily violations against the fishermen in Gaza.
The Islamic Jihad Movement also slammed what happened to the fishing boat and described it as another blatant violation of the truce agreement in Gaza.
In a press release Islamic Jihad stressed that the Palestinian resistance in Gaza has the right to retaliate to Israel’s aggression against its own people.
“If Israel’s aggression and unjust blockade do not end we have the right to defend ourselves and our people” the Movement said.
