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Health experts say the sea blockade may have dangerous implications for the Gazan diet. Several of Gaza's key sewage treatment and transport facilities were destroyed during last winter's war with Israel. Now, much of Gaza's sewage flows directly into the sea. "If the sewage is not treated, there will be a high level of metallic elements in the sea, including mercury," says Mohamed Elmi, the World Health Organization's Middle East regional adviser for food and chemicals. "[Mercury] affects your nervous system and your mental capability and capacity. It's a very poisonous metal. And if there...
...Israel used to deem fishermen low security risks. Before Israel's "disengagement" in 2005, "during the curfews, the Israelis would call over loudspeakers to tell the fishermen that they were allowed to go to their boats to fish," says al-Hissi, who has worked with Gaza's fishermen for the past 13 years. "With a fisherman's license, you could move, even during the curfew." But he has watched with alarm as the strip's fishing radius has shrank with each political setback; the fishing industry and the coastal environment becoming collateral damage in a larger conflict that the fishermen...
...organizations say fishermen also face the possibility of arrest while at sea. Several fishermen who spoke to TIME, say their boats were confiscated from within the current three mile limit in recent months; members of their crew forced to swim to nearby Israeli navy vessels, and then taken to Israel for questioning. "The Israelis took my boat five months ago, when it was about three kilometers out to sea," says Subhi Abdallah, a 60-year-old fisherman whose son was arrested when the boat was taken. "They took my son to [the Israeli port city of] Ashdod for 24 hours...
Despite the hazards of fishing and a questionable future for Gaza's fishing industry, al-Hissi says fishing is still on the rise. "There are no other opportunities because people can no longer work in Israel. We used to have 100 small boats in use for fishing. Now we have 400." The new fishermen are putting added strain on an ecosystem already in peril, with some resorting to unconventional methods, such as dynamite or poison to kill the fish. "This is even more dangerous than the sewage," says al-Hissi...
...Israel no longer has the freest press in the Middle East: "Israel has begun to use the same methods internally as it does outside its own territory. Reporters Without Borders registered five arrests of journalists, some of them completely illegal, and three cases of imprisonment. The military censorship applied to all the media is also posing a threat to journalists. As regards its extraterritorial actions, Israel was ranked 150th. The toll of the war was very heavy. Around 20 journalists in the Gaza Strip were injured by the Israeli military forces and three were killed while covering the offensive." (Read...