Irish Gaza Friends
03 December 2012

The report below is from Maria del mar Ferndandez, one of the board members of

Free Gaza. She will remain in Gaza until the end of the year and will make

periodic reports to us.

Gaza City, December 3, 2012: In the last 4 days, Israelis have arrested 31

fishermen, destroyed a boat, kept another one they say for three years,

distroyed 4 motors of the boats. They say also that Israelis are not shooting

any more water cannons but real fire, and when they arrest Palestinians, one

of their main interests in interrogations is to get information about

internationals.

Most of the fishermen in the fishermen's union and another fishing association

decided the day before yesterday not to go out to the sea, because they cannot

bear that more fishermen are arrested and the boats badly damaged. There is

still one fisherman kept in prison. The decision was also to wait for the next

ten days so that conversations in Cairo about the ceasefire are completed in

order to be sure of the 6 miles nautical miles. Most of the information is

published by PCHR in Gaza.

On Wednesday, December 5,  fishermen and internationals will demonstrate at

the harbour, and we have been asked to bring the flags of our own countries to

make visible our support and to spread the news as much as possible.

Yesterday, some fishermen dared to go out fishing, because they said they

preferred to be dead rather than stop bringing food for their families.

As for the farmers, they have been shot at in Beit Lahya where we wisited one

of the families, and also yesterday Israelis were shooting at farmers and

internationals in the buffer zone of Khan Younis. That's why Rosa, the Italian

international here, asked most of us today to go to support them. But in the

early morning they phoned that there was heavy shooting (real fire of course)

and they could not go to their lands in these conditions, even accompanied by

internationals. So, some of them have gone just to interview the farmers.

The statement for the European parliamentaries and to the world should be that

Israel is breaking dangerously the ceasefire as people cannot bear this

situation of being denied their most elemental rights to life, and security.

Two people have been dead since the "ceasefire", one in the South, and one in

the North with an unexploded bomb of the last attack.