Mohammed Asad
Middle East Monitor / December 1, 2021
The tilapia fish farming project by the Ministry of Agriculture in the Gaza Strip continues to achieve success for the twelfth consecutive year.
The farming project is located in the Hattin district, west of the Khan Yunis governorate in the south of the Gaza Strip, and is supervised by teams specialized in hatching, breeding and fattening the fish.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the project started in 2009 and has continued to expand.
The Ministry of Agriculture launched the project in 2009 because of the lack of fish in the Gaza Sea, due to the limited space in which fishermen are allowed to sail and fish as a result of the Israeli siege on the enclave. The restrictions limited the fish available in terms of quantity and quality. The ministry took steps to compensate for the shortcomings in the market with this project.
The farm is divided into special basins for mothers, some dedicated to mating and others to growth.
The fish takes six to seven months to reach a size suitable for consumption.
According to the Palestinian Fishermen’s Association in Gaza, there are some 4,000 fishermen working in Gaza’s fishing sector, who are looking after about 50,000 dependents.
The profession has been deemed dangerous by rights organizations due to Israel’s harassment of fishermen at sea.
Last year alone, Israeli occupation forces attacked Palestinian fishermen off the coast of the Gaza Strip on at least 320 occasions, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) reported, 63 more attacks than the previous year. Israel also closed the fishing area altogether for 16 days in August.
Mohammed Asad – MEMO’s correspondent based in Gaza
