Israeli blockade grounds Gaza fishermen

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Fisherman Alaa Brek, 24, is the only breadwinner in his family of 10, but hasn't been able to go to sea since he was shot by an Israeli navy crew enforcing a crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Lying on a mattress on the ground in his small brick house, Brek recalls the fateful events of March 8, when he suffered severe bullet wounds.

"I was pulling up my net when an Israeli patrol boat circled twice around my boat before firing at me and leaving. I lost a lot of blood," says Brek.

The border closure imposed in a bid to halt almost daily rocket fire by Gaza militants on southern Israel has left much of the fishing fleet in the impoverished Palestinian enclave lying idle at the waterside.

Fuel is scarce and available only at highly...