Special to WorldTribune.com

GAZA CITY — The fishing industry in the Gaza Strip was said to have
been suspended by a fuel shortage.

Palestinian sources said the fishing industry could no longer deploy
boats off the Gaza coast because of lack of fuel. They said virtually all
Palestinian fishing boat owners were unable to afford the much higher price
of diesel fuel.

“My trawler needs a lot of fuel to keep going, but with the current fuel
scarcity and the high prices on the black market it’s impossible for us,” Abdul Al Moti, a veteran fisherman, said.

The fishermen said most of the available fuel could be acquired only
through the black market. They said only 400 of the 3,800 fishermen in the Gaza Strip were still working amid the fuel crisis.

“We don’t even have gas to make tea here, so we’re back to using
firewood,” Gaza Fishermen Association president Mahmoud Al Asi Abu Hain said.

Fishing has been deemed one of the largest industries in the Gaza Strip.

Over the last few years, the fishermen have complained of low prices for
their produce as well as Israel Navy restrictions on fishing boats,
suspected of smuggling weapons and fighters to the Gaza Strip.

Some of the fishermen reported a ten-fold decline in revenues. The
Israel Navy has imposed a three-mile fishing limit off the Gaza coast.

“Thousands of fishermen have lost their livelihood over the last five
years because of a political decision by Israel,” Said Zeyada, a
representative of Union of Agriculture Workers Committee, said. “This latest
fuel crisis is just taking the hardships brought by the blockade a notch
further.”

Some of the fishermen said they have fallen into heavy debt in wake of
modernizing their boats. Some of them spent up to $25,000 each to install
powerful search lights, which operate on a generator, to draw fish closer to
the surface.

“When I bought the lights last November I told the supplier I would pay
him after the season as there was no fuel crisis at the time,” Suhail Al
Bakr, a fisherman, recalled.

  Gaza Fisherman Association, Gaza fishing industry devastated by fuel crisis, Israel Navy restrictions on fishing boats, one of Gaza’s largest industries, only fuel available on black market, Union of Agriculture Workers Committee