Walls, tall, deadly, three sides of Gaza. Fourth is the ocean, which stretches to the horizon.
The water and the fish in it have a long, nutrient gaza isolated from the outside world.
Today, the beach, along with fishermen who once robbed the banned coast from the Mediterranean, does not provide rest and small shelters for evacuees.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) repeated a security order earlier this month banning Gazan from swimming off the coast.
And as the Israeli army patrols the coast with lethal force, truly desperate courage tries to try and survive another day with just the courage of the waves.
As the world is upset by the image that Israeli actions face international criticism with children of Palestinian skeletal structures, Gazan focuses on finding his next meal.
This ocean has become one of the only food sources for those on the brink of hunger, although now prohibited by Israel.
Despite the risks posed by Israeli navy, some fishermen prefer to put water at risk rather than fatal gunshots in the shadow of aid points.
“There are no other foods, but this is not,” Fisherman Ziyad Abu Amira told CNN. “If I don’t bring it to my kids today, I’ll die.”
“I don’t chase (assistance) trucks. That’s how I do it,” he said.
Even scrap fish has become a meal for some. The 7-year-old Pheaza’s voice is small as it offers a bite that has been cleaned from the fishing net.
“I’m waiting for the fishermen to leave the sea and give me some. I’m coming every day and getting a little bit back and coming back,” she told CNN.
Plus along the beach, 8-year-old Hussam Saadalla is an unlikely earner for nine relatives.
He would go out into shallow waters on a net made with a friend and occasionally catch small fish. “We’re throwing the net because we want to eat,” he told CNN.
“I’m always afraid of naval ships once the naval ships get a little deeper.”
When the humanitarian crisis reaches a new low, Gazan enters water risk deaths from Israeli boats and aircraft.
Even before 2023, fishermen risked being killed, shot and detained by Israeli forces for wandering far away from the coast.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that since Israel began the Israeli war more than 21 months ago, most fishing boats have been destroyed, targeting fishing just a few metres from the coast.
After the IDF issued its latest dict decree on the Palestinians, “were back two days later,” Fisherman Ziyad Abu Amira told CNN that he was in the net. “You can’t see kids getting hungry.”
For years, Gazan had no free access to this precious natural resource. Israeli restrictions on fishing activities have fluctuated in tensions with Hamas, with limits of just three voyage miles and sometimes even previous total bans on fishing.
These limitations of navigation were directly correlated with the catches available to Gazan fishermen in deep waters.
According to the United Nations, Gaza fishermen produced about 4,660 tonnes of catch each year prior to the attack on October 7th.
Fisheries support the local community economically, “providing a key source of protein for the Gazan population and will greatly contribute to poverty alleviation and resilience against food insecurity,” the United Nations said in a report from May 2025.
Today, after Israeli forces almost completely destroy the infrastructure of Gazan’s fishing fleet and fish farms, its yield is now only 60 tons, with the farms not fully operational, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Agriculture.
The United Nations says Gaza’s fishing industry currently works at just 7.3% of its prewar production capacity.
The Mediterranean was also the site of some of the most well-known international initiatives mediating on Gazan’s behalf. In 2010, a fleet of civilian ships with assistance from Türkiye tried to break the blockade.
Israeli commanders stormed the ship, killing nine Turkish activists, prompting an onslaught of global criticism. Earlier this year, climate activist Greta Samberg was detained by Israeli forces in a largely symbolic attempt to reach the Gazan coast with aid ship.
However, water still has little comfort to Gaza.
16-year-old Ismail Al Amoudi comes from a fisherman’s family. He now sees the waves differently.
“Everyone is afraid to go to the sea,” he told CNN. “We see death right in front of us.”
