Gaza Strip markets flooded Wednesday with all kinds of fish after fishermen were allowed to expand the fishing area to nine miles on the coast of the Strip.
Israel has allowed fishing for 46 days with Israeli strict monitoring on sea, land and commercial ports.
Fishermen were able to return with a wide range of fish in huge quantities on their first day to this distance, which has been banned since 2007, when Israel imposed sea and land blockade on Gaza.
The markets have recovered with the availability of different fish and the increased sales and purchasing activities that benefit the sellers as well as the fishermen, who have always suffered repeated attacks by Israeli naval forces and denied them years of fishing in this area.
Fisherman Hashem Abu Riyala told Asharq Al-Awsat that the fishermen have been officially informed of being allowed to sail up to 9 miles, yet now they live with the fear of the Israeli occupation going back on its decision.
He noted that while sailing to that distance, they were afraid of being shot, and they were very careful.
“We did not believe that we were allowed to fish in the distance from which we had been deprived for many years,” Abu Riyala said, pointing out that majority of the fishermen succeeded in catching, marketing and selling large amounts of different fish to the citizens all the way to west of Gaza or to public markets.
On the other hand, Israel reopened Wednesday the Kerem Shalom (Karm Abu Salem) commercial crossing with Gaza for the first time since July 17.
Ra'ed Fattouh, Palestinian official in charge of coordinating the shipment of goods through the crossing of Kerem Shalom on the border between Israel and southeast Gaza Strip, said that Israel will allow 700 trucks carrying construction materials, fuel, food, commercial and industrial products to pass through.
