“The bullets
made the water splash up in my face. The soldiers shouted at us to take off our
shirts and trousers. We had to jump into the water and swim towards them one by
one” says 17-year old Mohammed Bakr, as he recounts how Israeli naval forces
detained him from his family’s fishing boat, together with his cousin and
uncle.

Mohammed
Wisam Lutfi Bakr is the oldest of 9 children. He is from a fisherman’s family
living in Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood. He has been helping out on his
father’s fishing boat since he was 7 years old. As he explains what happened to
him, his cousin, and their uncle on the early morning of 10 November he relives
the fear he felt during the initial attack, arrest and subsequent detention.

Like every
morning when the weather allows, Mohammed, his cousin Abdul Kader Wael Bakr
(17), and their uncle Arafat Lutfi Bakr (28) went out fishing off the shore of
Gaza City, leaving at approximately 03.00. At around 03.30, when they were
approximately 2 nautical miles off Gaza City’s shore, they were suddenly
approached by a large Israeli gunboat. Without warning soldiers started firing
shots in the water around them, very close to the boat. “The bullets made the
water splash up in my face. The soldiers shouted at us to take off our shirts
and trousers. We had to jump into the water and swim towards them one by one”
Mohammed recalls. His uncle Arafat went first. Mohammed watched how his uncle
was pulled on board of the gunboat by the soldiers. Then his cousin Abdul Kader
followed. “I went last” says Mohammed, “they handcuffed us with plastic straps
and blindfolded Arafat. There were at least 5 soldiers. They kicked and beat me
on my arms and legs. They did the same to my cousin. I’m almost sure they gave
our uncle even worse treatment, but I could not see him because they took him
out of our sight”. All three of them were taken to a detention facility in
Ashdod and held there blindfolded. “It was very dirty. At some point I said I
needed to go to the toilet. Then they put me in an open area where everyone
could see me. There was not even a toilet.”

Around
12.00h Mohammed and Abdul Kader were transferred to Erez checkpoint, between
Israel and the Gaza Strip. There the two cousins were held and questioned until 22.30h. Then the soldiers at the Erez called
Mohammed’s father and grandfather to tell them that they released the two
cousins. The two men had been waiting for news about the boys since noon, when
a fisherman told them they had been taken by soldiers. The father and
grandfather had heard shots being fired while they were in the mosque for
morning prayers. Later they realized they had heard the attack on Mohammed,
Abdul Kader and Arafat.

Mohammed
cannot stop thinking about his uncle, who is still being held in Israeli
detention; “Arafat and I would go everywhere together and do all the fishing
together. I am very worried about him. The soldiers even said; ‘you always go
fishing with Arafat’. I am very afraid for how they are treating him.” Arafat
is a member of the Palestinian Naval Police.

On the day
of the arrest, the family’s fishing boat, including the motor and net, were
confiscated. The boat was passed from Mohammed’s grandfather to his father and
has been the livelihood of the extended family for as long as Mohammed can
remember: “we have no money for a new boat, motor, and net. Altogether it would
cost us around 46,000 NIS.” With the confiscation Mohammed and many of his
relatives lost their only source of income.

Mohammed is
in his last year of high school and is preparing for the final tawjihi exams;
“all my classmates take extra classes for the tawjihi but it costs a lot of money, which my family doesn’t have.”
Mohammed would like to take the extra classes too but with the loss of the
family income, that has become an impossible challenge.

The Israeli
army violence against the fishermen has a major impact on Mohammed and his
family: “last year my twenty year old cousin, Mohammed Mansour Bakr, was attacked by the Israeli army while fishing. The
soldiers shot him and he died. The army is merciless. We stopped fishing for a
little while but eventually we had no choice but to get back to our work. We
are attacked a lot by the soldiers. They harass us. During this year’s Ramadan
they chased and harassed us seven times. It feels like they want to disturb us
more during our holy month. At sea the thoughts of risks are constantly in my
head. Everyone can feel the same fear at sea. It feels like watching a
frightening movie”. However, there is no other option for Mohammed and his
family but to continue fishing; “There is no other work for us. Where can we
possibly get other work from in Gaza? Even though our work is very dangerous,
there is no other choice but to go back to the see because we need the money.
If and when we get another boat, I will go again.”

For the past
two decades the fishing waters of the Gaza Strip have gradually shrunk by
access restrictions imposed as a result of the Oslo agreement and more recently
by illegal unilateral restrictions imposed by Israel. Even within the currently
enforced 3 nautical mile limit, the Israeli navy regularly attacks, arrests,
and sometimes even kills fishermen. This year at least 32 fishermen were
arrested, 17 in the month of November. Another 5 fishermen were injured and at
least 20 boats were confiscated. In conjunction with the restriction on fishing
waters, the income of Gaza’s fishing community (8,200 fishermen and workers in
the fishing sector) has steadily decreased. By 2010 the fishing catch had
decreased by 37% compared to 2008 and this amounted to only half of the 1999
fishing catch. The sardine catch, which makes up 70% of Gaza’s total fishing
catch, now only reaches 20% of the sardine catch that existed before the
restrictions, representing a loss of $10 million. Finally, according to the
Fisherman’s Syndicate, around 60% of the small fishing boats and 22% of trawler
boats in the Gaza Strip are not used because of the high risks involved and the
limited catch.