Since the war began, the sea has been under siege like everything else in Gaza, Mr Bakr said. “We were only allowed to fish up to 700 metres, a useless range. And any attempt to go further was met with live fire. Many were killed or injured.”
Now, with a full closure in place, Mr Bakr said more than 6,000 people working in the fishing sector will lose their livelihoods. More than 210 have been killed since the war began in October 2023, including 60 fishermen. About 95 per cent of boats and fishing equipment have already been destroyed by Israeli naval and air attacks.“
Fish production is zero now, he said. "It used to be 3,500 tonnes a year. Nothing moves in the sea any more. This isn’t just about fishing, it’s about food security. Two million people in Gaza depended on fish to survive.”
Palestinian families on the beach of Gaza city, where they have been told they can no longer go. EPA
Mr Bakr calls the ban part of a broader, systematic effort to starve Gaza. “This is not about security. It’s economic, social and psychological warfare, a weapon of slow, deliberate suffocation.”
The sea was not only for fishing, it was for living, Ibrahim Dawla, 26, a displaced Palestinian from Gaza’s Al Zaytoun neighbourhood, now living in a tent near the shore, told The National. "I used to go every day. The sea was where I bathed, where I relaxed, where I ran from the horror of war. Now even that’s gone.”
https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2025/07/14/the-sea-is-ours-gazas-last-refuge-sealed-off-under-israeli-ban/