This summer season, at least eight Palestinians drowned at sea and 3,000 were rescued

According to official Palestinian data, at least eight Palestinians from the coastal enclave drowned off the shores of Gaza, while about 3,000 others were rescued during the current summer season. 

The Hamas-run Ministry of Local Government in Gaza said in a press statement, "The coastal enclave witnessed a significant increase in the deaths by drowning in the sea, and this year we were shocked by the great number of those drowned in the sea."

"More than half of the cases received health care in hospitals, except for some losing their lives. As a result of the worsening of their health conditions, due to the citizens' failure to comply with the instructions of the rescue teams," the ministry added. 

Speaking to The New Arab, Ibrahim Shamlakh, the head of the rescue teams in the Gaza Municipality, said that "there is great discontent over the increasing number of deaths by drowning this year."

"Unfortunately, all drowning cases that led to the death of citizens were outside the working hours of the rescue teams deployed along the seashore," he added. "The vacationers were not adhering to our instructions, especially since the rescue crews place flags on the beach every morning through which they determine the nature of the sea."

Along the seashores of Gaza, about 700 rescuers work on 135 watch towers daily from eight in the morning until eight in the evening.

Amid the lack of rescue equipment, all marine rescue personnel work are highly qualified and experienced in swimming and know how to deal with sudden water fluctuations, according to Shamalakh. 

He notes that marine rescue training was conducted to select candidates for work every year, as they all hold a maritime rescue certificate and theoretical and practical tests were conducted for them in ambulance skills. 

Initially, speed of achievement and physical fitness, in addition to the participation of other devices from the Maritime Police and the Red Crescent, to maintain the safety of citizens during the summer season, he stressed. 

However, he pointed out that the Gaza seashore is witnessing significant congestion, with the country being affected by hot and dry waves that reach from the middle to the end of the thirties. Still, the drowning cases increased due to the absence of marine rescue teams.

Wasim Sheikh Khalil, a Gaza-based rescue worker, described his work as the most complex and dangerous as he and his workmates must race against time to rescue the drowned people. 

Usually, he said, this year is considered the worst due to strong sea currents and severe climate change. 

"The rescuers on the rescue towers suffer from increasing daily dealings with several drowning cases, whether individual or collective, and, which is the cause of these fluctuations, and what increases the suffering we have as rescue teams are the difficulty of citizens' cooperation with the watch towers, and this increases the daily drowning cases as a result of the citizen's disregard for their lives," he added. 

Since 2007, the Israeli occupation imposed its tight blockade on Gaza, home to more than 2.3 million people, following the Islamic Hamas movement forcibly seized the territory. 

Since then, the sea has become the only outlet for the Gazans, who predominantly suffer from poverty, unemployment, and psychological problems. 

As a result of the Israeli blockade and the financial crisis that the government is going through, it cannot provide adequate services for the marine rescue category, Shamalk said. 

"Every second that we reach a drowning person, the chance of his survival is greater," Shamalakh stressed, noting that "there are some cases that have been drowned and are still staying in intensive care rooms in hospitals, as a result of it taking longer to reach them by rescue teams due to the absence of the necessary equipment."

Marwa Ahmed, a Gaza-based woman, complained that Gaza's beach, the only outlet for the besieged population in the Gaza Strip, became a source of aversion and fear for those who went to it after it claimed the lives of many citizens while swimming. 

This was why Marwa prevented her four children from swimming in the sea. The 35-year-old mother of six said, "Despite living near it, I decided not to go to the beach often (...) I was really so scared of losing any one of my family."