The Israeli occupation has imposed a total ban on access to Gaza’s sea, sealing off yet another lifeline for a besieged population. For Gaza’s fishermen, already battered by months of bombardment and destruction, this decision marks a further blow to their last means of survival.

Israel’s army declared the coastal waters off-limits on Saturday, warning that any attempt to approach the sea would endanger lives. For Gaza’s fishermen, this is no hypothetical threat. They have long endured harassment, gunfire, and the destruction of boats and ports, yet many still risk their lives daily to feed their families with whatever remains of their shattered boats.

Zakaria Bakr, head of the Fishermen’s Syndicate in Gaza, says the new ban only formalises what has already been enforced through violence. Even before the latest order, fishing was nearly impossible. Most of the infrastructure, 95%, has been destroyed, and the once-thriving industry has been reduced to silence. From 4,500 fishermen before the war, fewer than 500 now venture near the water, using paddle boats within perilously narrow zones. Over 60 fishermen have been killed trying to work at sea.

The sea, once a source of life, has become yet another weapon in Israel’s arsenal of collective punishment. Not a single engine has run since the war began. Fish production has collapsed to less than 2% of pre-war levels. What remains is a deliberate suffocation of one of Gaza’s last economic arteries.

This is not just an attack on livelihoods, it is part of a broader campaign to starve, isolate, and crush a people whose resilience refuses to break. For Gaza’s fishermen, the horizon no longer offers hope. It has been blockaded, bombed, and now banned.