Israel Bans Palestinians in Gaza from Swimming and Fishing
The ban covers swimming, fishing, and diving, and warns that any violations will be met with force by Israeli forces.
During Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, more than 6,000 people, the majority of them fishermen, have effectively lost their jobs and sources of food. The fishing sector, once producing around 3,500 tonnes a year, has dropped to zero.
Nearly all boats and equipment have been destroyed, and over 210 people from this sector have been killed since October 2023, including at least 60 fishermen.
Gaza's fishing port has been destroyed, and all maritime activity has been stopped because of the genocide.
Gaza's Government Media Office, led by director general Ismail Al‑Thawabta, condemned the ban as a violation of international law.
He described it as a deliberate starvation tactic targeting Gaza's livelihood, undermining the right to work and live with dignity, and amounting to collective punishment under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
As the enclave endures shortages of food, clean water, fuel, and electricity under a broader blockade, the maritime ban marks yet another devastating blow. With no safe space left on land or at sea, more than two million Palestinians in Gaza are stripped of one of the few existing freedoms and sources of survival.
This article was previously published on kuwaitmoments. To see the original article, click here
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Last month MEE revealed details of the call, in which Cameron told Khan applying for the warrants would be like 'dropping a hydrogen bomb'. The British Foreign Office and Khan both declined to comment in response to the report, while Cameron did not respond to multiple requests by MEE for comment. Khan faced more pressure from other sources. In a virtual meeting with ICC officials in May, US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham threatened sanctions against them if Khan applied for the warrants, according to British barrister Andrew Cayley, who oversaw the ICC's Palestine investigation. These threats would not dissuade Khan from applying for the warrants. It was on 29 April 2024, over a month after the decision to apply for warrants was made, that one of Khan's staff made harassment allegations against him. The allegations were referred to the court's Internal Oversight Mechanism (IOM), its investigative body, on 3 May. But an investigation was closed days later after the woman said she did not want to cooperate with it. This means that when Khan announced he was applying for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on 20 May, there was no investigation against him. Months later, in October, as speculation began to increase that ICC judges would soon issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, an anonymous account on social media platform X began circulating details of the sexual misconduct allegations against Khan. UN urged to take legal action at ICJ to uphold Francesca Albanese's immunity Read More » According to the Wall Street Journal, an anonymous source also sent information about the allegations to journalists in an email that contained the phone numbers of the complainant and an advisor to Khan, Thomas Lynch, next to the Hebrew word for telephones. The IOM then opened another investigation, which was closed in early November. Two investigations into the allegations had been opened and closed when the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) opened its own external investigation, which is ongoing. Since being subjected to sanctions by the US in February, Khan has had his American visa revoked and his wife and children have been banned from travelling to the country. His bank accounts have also been frozen in the UK. Khan declined to comment on the matters raised in this article. He has repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing. The ICC also finds itself in a precarious position. In a further threat to the court last week, the US State Department's legal advisor Reed Rubinstein warned that 'all options remain on the table' unless all arrest warrants and the investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes are dropped. The US also last week imposed sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, who it said had 'directly engaged' with the ICC. If the US sanctions the court as an institution, as some experts believe it might, it would prevent many banks and software companies from dealing with it – potentially crippling the ICC's ability to function.
