Gaza’s Deadly Heatwave and Israel’s Ban on the Sea: Starvation, Siege, and a Stripped Lifeline

Watan-With temperatures in Gaza forecast to hit a record 37°C, the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson issued an urgent warning at the beginning of the week: “Entering the sea is forbidden. Violators risk immediate danger to life.”

This, in a reality where nearly all Gazans have been displaced from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are crammed into tents or the ruins of destroyed buildings.

To obtain food or aid, they must walk kilometers across sand and under the blazing sun. There is no electricity for air conditioning—and no air conditioners to use anyway. Clean drinking water is scarce, and there is no escape from the sweltering heat.

So, Gazans go to the sea—to try to catch small fish to feed their families, wash, clean clothes, and simply find refuge from the suffocating heat.

But everyone in Gaza knows: the sea is dangerous. It was dangerous even before the war, due to Israel’s strict fishing zone limits. Now, it is seven times more dangerous.

Since the war began, dozens of people have been shot dead while at sea, most of them while trying to fish.“Fishermen told me they’ve gotten used to joking with their families before heading out, saying things like: ‘Today you’ll either eat or bury me,’” said Zakaria Bakr, head of Gaza’s Fishermen’s Committee.

“I remember the last fisherman killed by the Israeli navy just days before a ceasefire began. He hadn’t gone more than 300 meters from the shore. It took us 10 days to retrieve his body—the sea was too dangerous. The fish had eaten him. It was horrifying.”

🎣 The Fishing Industry Destroyed

Gaza’s fishing sector, once a key source of income and food security, has been almost completely destroyed by Israel in the current war.

Air, sea, and land assaults have obliterated critical infrastructure—fishing boats, fish farms, the Gaza fishing port. Even during ceasefires, Israel blocks fishermen from accessing the sea.

Fish has become a luxury. Prices in Gaza have surged to 200 shekels per kilo, making it unaffordable to most.

Between October 2023 and April 2024, income from fishing dropped by over 92%, falling to just 7.3% of its prewar levels, a $17.5 million loss—and that doesn’t include damage to fish farms.

A Deliberate Starvation Policy?

Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid and its destruction of food production—especially fishing—have exacerbated the humanitarian catastrophe.

Preventing sea access and targeting fishing are part of a broader strategy, described by critics as a policy of starvation: destroying self-sufficiency so that Israel can use its monopoly over aid entry as a tool of pressure and warfare.

Under international law, as an occupying power and party to the war, Israel is obligated to provide for civilians’ needs. It must cease attacks on fishermen and infrastructure, lift the sea ban, and allow the entry of essential equipment to rebuild the industry.

“I miss the sea—everything about it,” said Mohammed, a fisherman in his twenties, to Gisha (an Israeli rights group) during its research into Gaza’s food system collapse.

“Just getting the boat out… the waves… I miss it all.”

Sea as Last Refuge from Collapse

The ban on sea access deprives Gazans not only of livelihood and food, but of a final escape from the heat.

Gaza’s water, sanitation, and hygiene systems have nearly collapsed. Israel’s fuel restrictions have shut down wells and desalination plants. Even the basic human relief of washing or cooling off is now largely unavailable.

What was once a source of survival—the sea—has now become a zone of death.