Fishers in Lebanon cannot access the sea

An article from the International Herald Tribune, by R.F. Worth. It is on Lebanese fishermen, some of whom are Palestinian refugees from 1948. It was published on August, 28th. I hesitated before posting it as it is not specifically on Gaza and as I don't know the situation of fishers in Lebanon. In the end I decided to put it on line, for information purposes. Below some extracts of the article:

"I am living on borrowed money."

Israeli blockade of Lebanese waters goes on, and its most direct victims are fishermen. They have been unable to put their boats out since the conflict began July 12.

For now, the 600 fishermen in Sidon are living mostly on handouts from the town and nonprofit groups. The fishermen say the aid is not enough to feed their families. The situation is the same, or worse, for the thousands of fishermen who work along Lebanon's coast, from Naqoura in the south to Tripoli in the north. Some have been reduced to begging.

Israel says it cannot lift the blockade until peacekeeping troops ensure that Lebanese ports are not used to import weapons for Hezbollah, the Shiite militia that battled Israel for more than a month.

Fouad Siniora, the current prime minister, appealed Wednesday to the United States for help in getting Israel to lift the blockade, without success.

About a quarter of the fishermen here are Palestinians, who generally live in poverty in refugee camps. Under Lebanese law, they are not allowed to own more than 49 percent of a fishing boat, or even to join fishermen's unions, so they are even more vulnerable than many others who fish for a living.

Sitting in his living room, Taher pointed to a black-and-white photograph of his grandfather, in a suit and tie, who was a judge in Haifa before the family fled north in 1948 when the state of Israel was created. As a younger son, he had few career options, and he took up fishing at 16.

"Yesterday we blew up inner tubes and put nets in them and floated them out from shore," Taher said in halting English. "Five men, and we sold our fish for 50,000 Lebanese pounds, 10,000 each." (Just under $7.)

He paused, then smiled. "Enough to buy some cigarettes," he said.