Israeli gunboats kidnap Gaza fisherman, peaceworkersEva Bartlett, The Electronic Intifada, 21 November 2008 An Israeli naval ship sprays a Palestinian fishing boat with a water cannon off the coast of the Gaza Strip. (David Schermerhorn) On the evening of Tuesday 18 November Khalid al-Habeel sat surrounded by his wife, family, and other concerned fishermen. Until the early hours of the following day, they had no idea what charges were being laid against 15 fishermen, including two of al-Habeel's sons, Adham (21) and Mohammed (20), after they were nabbed from Gaza's territorial waters earlier that morning and taken to an Israeli interrogation center at Ashdod port. Nor did they know when or if their boats -- their livelihoods -- would be returned. Khaled Al-Habeel, or Abu Adham (father of Adham) explained the events leading up to the fishermen's arrest. "Shortly after 10am, I got a panicked call from Adham, who was captain today, saying their boat was surrounded by Israeli naval boats." "There are many ships around us; there's no way to leave," said Adham to his father. Their boat was approximately seven miles out from Deir al-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip. Although Palestinian fishermen have the right to fish up to 20 nautical miles from Gaza's coast, as laid-out in the 1994 Interim Agreement signed by Israel, since 1996 Israel has downsized this distance in stages, documented by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). Imposing a sea blockade on Gaza in 1996, Israel illegally reduced the allowable fishing zone to 12 nautical miles. From 2002 to 2003 this was further reduced to six miles from Gaza's shore. While Adham and the more than 3,500 professional fishermen that scour Gaza's waters for needed sustenance and sources of income are accustomed to Israeli navy harassment, Tuesday's encounter was different, heightened. "We're used to facing Israeli attacks in the sea, but we've never seen anything like what happened today. Usually, the Israeli so...
