Palestinian fishing boats sail alongside the SS Dignity, the third boat to break the Israeli siege by docking in the Gaza Strip. (Hatem Omar, Maan Images)

Israeli naval commandos recently hauled off three international human rights workers off Palestinian fishing boats seven nautical miles off Gaza's coast. They were accompanying 15 Palestinian fishermen attempting to complete a day's fishing without being shot at or arrested by the Israeli navy.

Darlene Wallach (57) from the U.S., Andrew Muncie (34) from Britain and Italian Vittorio Arrigoni (33), members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian rights organisation, were attempting to protect the fishermen when their three boats were surrounded by two Israeli gun boats and five smaller naval boats.

Twenty naval commandos boarded the vessels. Using tasers and guns, they forced the ISM members and Palestinian fishermen into their naval vessels. Despite being in Palestinian territorial waters, and nowhere near Israeli territorial waters, the solidarity activists were taken to a detention centre at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv from where they were subsequently deported. The Gazans were interrogated before being sent back to Gaza.

The human rights workers had been accompanying Gaza's fishermen on daily fishing expeditions for the last few months as the fishermen played a game of cat and mouse with the Israeli navy, risking their lives and property in their attempt to eke out a living.

Under the Oslo Accords signed in 1994, Gaza's fishermen were permitted to go 20 nautical miles out to sea. Following the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising, or Intifadah, in 2000, the capture of an Israeli soldier and the takeover of the territory by the Islamic resistance organisation Hamas, Israel limited this to six nautical miles on grounds of security.

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Three Palestinian fishermen were shot dead over the last two years as they strayed past the Israeli limit, but even those within the limit have been shot at. Numerous others have been injured, had their boats confiscated, and returned with essential equipment missing.

Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem has said in a report that the Israeli navy has also humiliated and abused many of the fishermen captured.

"Usually, the Israeli soldiers shoot at and around our boat with automatic weapons, and they shoot a high-pressure water cannon at the boat," said Khaled Al-Habeel, one of the fishermen captured with the human rights workers. "When they arrest us, they make us strip down to our underwear, jump into the water even in winter, and swim to their ship where we are then arrested, handcuffed, and taken away to an Israeli interrogation centre."

The UN estimates that a distance of 12-15 nautical miles off Gaza is the minimum required to access the larger shoals of fish for maximum economic benefit.

To read the full article please visit Inter Press Service.