Happiness was clear on the face of Mustafa Sultan, the 40-year-old fisherman from the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia as he finally was able to fishing in the sea, at the end of a 50-day large-scale Israeli offensive on the coastal enclave.
Sultan is one of 4,000 fishermen from the Gaza Strip, who were unable to go fishing during the air, sea and ground operations on the enclave that started on July 8 and ended on Aug. 26, and claimed the lives of 2,145 Palestinians and wounded 11,100 others, most of them civilians.
"Finally, I managed to go to the sea to practice my fishing career after I was unable to fish during the war time on Gaza," said Sultan, adding that "we are now in a distance of six miles away from the beach, we throw out nets and we catch plenty amounts of fish."
Sultan, who suddenly changed the lineament of his happy face, said that "before the war on Gaza, Israel restricted the fishing area from six miles to three miles, and this area was almost empty of fish and overcrowded with boats and fishermen, besides the daily Israeli naval forces harassment to fishermen."
"Every time fishermen tried to go further than three miles, Israeli soldiers were opening fire at them, but now at the end of the war, we can go for six miles and the Israelis are not opening fire at us," Sultan said, adding that "I heard that next week, the six miles will expand to nine miles."
When Israel signed Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians in 1993, the allowed area for fishing in the Gaza Strip was 12 miles; however, when Hamas had violently seized control of the territory in the summer of 2007, Israel imposed a tight blockade on Gaza and restricted the area for fishing to three miles.
At the end of a large-scale Israeli aerial operation on the coastal enclave in late 2012, Egypt brokered a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas, and it was agreed to enlarge the fishing area to six miles, but Israel reduced it back to three miles after discovering tunnels from Gaza into Israel.
Ra'ed Baker, a 30-year-old fisherman from Gaza, said "reaching the limit of six miles and keep progressing to nine miles and then 12 miles within one month is a very good thing," adding that "but I hope that Israel will be committed to increasing the allowed fishing area to 12 miles at the end."
He added, as he pulled his fishing net out from the sea filled with various kinds of fish, that "I believe that without reaching an agreement, we wouldn't have these beautiful amounts of fish, particularly, these days are the season of good fishing."
The fishermen union in Gaza said in a statement that there are 4,000 fishermen and 1,000 fishing boats in the strip. They lack new fishing equipment and over the past eight years they have been facing the annoyance of the Israeli naval forces, such as shooting at their boats.
"Over the past two days, no Israeli naval forces harassment to the fishermen was recorded," Nizar Ayyash, the chairman of the fishermen union in Gaza, told Xinhua. "During the first day after the cease-fire deal came into effect, fishermen caught 20 tons of various kinds of fish."
He said his union was notified by the Palestinian negotiators that by next week, fishermen will be able to go fishing into a nine-mile area, adding that "I hope within the coming month, the area will be enlarged to 12 miles, then fish will be filling the markets with plenty amounts."
Ayyash complained that in the war time, fishermen were unemployed, adding that "they have families to feed, and the economy was badly damaged. Beside this, during the war many fishing boats were destroyed or badly damaged by the naval forces shells while the boats were on the sands of Gaza beach."
"Sixty fishing boats were destroyed and 55 rooms at Gaza dock were badly damaged by the Israeli shells and war jets missiles," said Ayyash, who called on international rights groups to keep pushing Israel to allow fishing in 12 miles area to help fishing flourishing in the coastal enclave.