The international Sumud Flotilla may have sailed with hopes of breaking Gaza's blockade, but for the Palestinian fishermen waiting on the shore, nothing changed. The sea remains closed, their boats idle, and the bullets still linger beyond the waves.
For weeks, Gaza's fishermen followed the news of the Sumud Flotilla, a group of international ships attempting once again to reach the enclave, on cracked phones and old radios.
Separately speaking to The New Arab, local fishermen said that they imagined this time the ships might open the sea for them, even if only for one day. But when Israel intercepted the flotilla in international waters, hope sank once more.
"We were waiting to hear they had arrived. We thought we might be able to fish freely again. But nothing changed. The sea is still a prison," Mohammed al-Habil, a 46-year-old fisherman from Gaza City, told TNA. "The flotilla gave us hope, but not fuel, not food, not freedom, as the Israeli occupation prevented it from reaching us, like it always does."
"We watched the news of the interception and felt our hope sink again. The flotilla gave us words and sympathy, but not the freedom we need to live," he added.
For al-Habil and other fishermen in Gaza, hope doesn't fill their nets. It doesn't buy diesel or fix a broken boat. What they need is for the sea to open, for the blockade to end, so they can work with dignity, as he insisted.
"The flotilla reminded us that people still think of Gaza, but as long as Israel controls the horizon, we remain trapped behind waves we can't cross," he continued.
Waiting for freedom
Since 7 October 2023, Gaza's port has become a place of quiet despair. Most boats lie broken or without fuel, and the few that sail return with almost empty nets. The air smells of rust and salt, and the small piles of sardines they bring back barely earn enough to survive.
"We only fish within two miles now. We no longer see the big fish. Even salt is expensive. The sea is right in front of us, but it's closed, like a door to freedom that never opens," Nidal al-Za'anin, a young fisherman in Gaza, told TNA.
Despite the flotilla's failure, fishermen still talk about it. To them, it represents a distant voice of solidarity, proof that someone beyond the blockade still remembers them. Yet they know that words and symbolism won't open the sea.
"We risk our lives for a few fish that don't even pay for the diesel. They say the flotilla came to support us, but real support is when the sea opens," al-Za'anin remarked.
In Deir al-Balah, Osama Miqdad, another fisherman, called the flotilla a "media event that didn't change anything. The fleet shouted against the blockade, but Israel doesn't even let the UN bring in marine equipment. Fishing has become more of an adventure than a profession."
Data from the Gaza Fishermen's Syndicate show that more than 90 per cent of fishermen have stopped working in the past two years. Since the start of the war in October 2023, Israel has banned the fishermen from entering the sea.
Political observers agree that while the flotilla failed to reach Gaza, it reignited attention on the human toll from the decades-long Israeli blockade.
"The flotilla wasn't only about aid. It was an attempt to break the international silence about Gaza's suffering, especially the fishermen, whose livelihoods symbolise the denial of basic economic rights," Ahed Ferwana, a political analyst from Gaza City, told TNA.
"Symbolically, it reminded the world that Gaza's blockade isn't just on land, it's at sea. Israel treats the coast as a military border, not an economic lifeline," he said.
On the ground, conditions have worsened. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Gaza's fishing sector, once employing over 6,000 people, is collapsing.
A joint report by the Addameer Association for Human Rights and the Gaza NGO Network found that at least 202 fishermen have been killed since the start of Israel's genocidal war, including 50 shot at sea. More than 300 others were injured, and over 90 per cent of fishing boats, warehouses, and fishermen's rooms were destroyed.
"The Israeli navy deliberately targeted fishing infrastructure. From the first days of the war, Israel bombed the marinas and boats using naval vessels and warplanes. About 95 per cent of the fishing sector has been destroyed, including ice factories and the main fish market," Zakaria Baker, coordinator of the Fishermen's Committees in Gaza, told TNA.
Baker said only one boat in Gaza City survived, and it was later bombed. "The occupation has wiped out an entire livelihood. More than 6,000 people lost their jobs, and food security for two million people is directly affected," he said.
In fact, the flotilla did not open Gaza's waters. Still, it revealed a more profound truth: that no act of solidarity, however noble, can replace the political will needed to end Israel's ruthless blockade.
On the coast, where rusting boats lie abandoned and families survive on hope, the fishermen's story mirrors Gaza's own, trapped between despair and the will to endure.