Legal experts from the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) and the Fatwa and Legislation Office in Gaza have released an investigative report accusing the Israeli navy of deliberately sinking a Palestinian fishing boat and killing a fisherman aboard it earlier this month.
The report which was released on Wednesday following a thorough investigation of the crime clarified what had happened during the Israeli vessel-ramming attack on the boat of fisherman Mohamed al-Hissi at around 09:20 pm on January 4 2017.
According to the report Hissi was alone on his 15-meter-long wooden boat that day. The boat was provided with over 11 lights and could be seen clearly from a distance of 11 nautical miles.
The boat was at a distance of 5.5 nautical miles off the coast of Beit Lahia and 200 meters away from Israel’s southern boundary known as the yellow zone which means that it was present within the six-nautical-mile fishing space permitted by the Israeli army.
The incident happened when an Israeli armored “Dabur-class” patrol boat weighing about 60 tons appeared at the scene at around 09:15 pm. The boat was holding the number 843.
This navy vessel repeatedly circled the small fishing boat causing big rolling waves that swamped the fishing boat and turned off its lights before changing course suddenly dashing towards the boat and shattering it into pieces floating over the water surface.
Consequently Hissi the fisherman died during the collision and drowned.
The report pointed to the possibility that the body of the victim was dismembered near the power generator of the boat after prolonged efforts to find his body failed.
Immediately following the incident other fishermen embarked on searching for the victim’s body from 09:30 pm until two am after midnight according to the report.
The report condemned the attack as “a heinous crime and a gross violation of the international law” including the fourth Geneva Convention the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In this regard the ICHR said it would file a lawsuit with the criminal court in The Hague against Israel for the premeditated killing of the Palestinian fisherman Mohamed al-Hissi.
It also appealed to the UN its Security Council and international human rights group to seriously intervene to put an end to Israel’s intentional killing of Palestinian citizens.
