Gaza siege causing $70000 in daily losses for fishermen

Monday May 05, 2008 15:11 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Popular Committee Against the Siege reported that initial reports revealed that the daily losses of the fishing industry in the Gaza Strip is estimated by $70000 and that additional losses of $30000 are caused to the fishermen as they are unable to export their fish out of the Gaza Strip.

Rami Abed Rabbo, spokesperson of the Committee said in a press conference in Dir Al Balah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, that the total losses fishermen encountered since the beginning  of the siege is more than $27.000.000.

He added that 70.000 of Gaza residents depend on fishing as the only source of livelihood and that 3.0 of the fishermen became unemployed.

Nizar Ayyash, representative of the fishermen, said that the Israeli army targets fishermen by firing at them, barring them from fishing or reaching areas that are rich in fish, and added that Israeli military boats damages the fishing nets in addition to several other attacks, including shelling the fishing boats, that bars the fishermen from practicing their profession.

Moreover, Abed Rabbo stated that a Palestinian woman, identified as Mariam Rashwan, 58, died on Sunday of a heart conditions she suffered from and was barred from leaving the Gaza strip for medical treatment in Egypt.

The death of Rashwan raised the number of patients who died as a result of the siege to 142.

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