Gaza fishermen say Israel exit won't end occupation

For Palestinian fishermen like Haitham Habib, Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza next year will not end the occupation that confines them to a meagre catch.
The evacuation is not expected to include a pullout of Israeli naval patrol boats that fire over the fishermen's heads and block access to deep, rich Mediterranean waters offshore.
"If they withdraw from the sea, a lot would change. We would live well. We could get lots of fish," said Habib while sipping tea under a makeshift tent in Gaza's port.
"But I don't think they will leave the sea."
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants to evacuate all 21 settlements, where 7,500 Jews live isolated from 1.3 million Palestinians, as part of a plan to "disengage" from a long-running conflict with the Palestinians.
Israeli officials say there will be no basis for considering Gaza, captured in the 1967 Middle East war, as occupied after the withdrawal.
But Israel will continue to control Gaza's airspace, coastal waters and border with Egypt until it is confident that Palestinian authorities are stamping out violence by militants.
Israel is considering digging a dry moat on Gaza's southern border to help shut down weapons-smuggling through tunnels from Egypt. Palestinians who want to cross from Gaza to Egypt will have to co-ordinate movements with Israelis on the border.
Israel, which has carried out frequent armoured incursions and air strikes in Gaza since a Palestinian revolt broke out in 2000, says it reserves the right to hit any perceived security threat there even after a pullout.
It says the blockade off Gaza's seaboard is meant to thwart the smuggling of weaponry to Palestinian militant factions who target settlements and soldiers.
Fishermen at Gaza City's port, where dozens of skiffs loaded with green nets line the shore, say their haul has dwindled because of Israeli restrictions since a Palestinian uprising broke out in 2000.
The World Food Programme is helping feed nearly 1,500 fishing families deprived of income because of limits on access to the sea.
Under 1990s interim peace deals with Israel, anglers gained access to Gaza's whole coastline up to 23 miles (37 km) out to sea, except two small buffer zones in the north and south.
The fishermen say they are often restricted to less than half that distance offshore. Sometimes, they say, they cannot leave the port. In southern areas of the strip, some fishermen cannot fish at all, humanitarian workers say.