After more than a year of war in Gaza, Palestinian fishermen are gathering along the coast, desperately casting their nets in the hope of catching enough for their families amid widespread famine.

Since Israel launched a military offensive against Gaza following the Hamas attack in October 2023, Israeli restrictions in the waters off the enclave have made life almost impossible for fishermen, who no longer sail at sea and must rather stay close to the shore.

In Khan Younis, Ibrahim Ghurab, 71, and Waseem Al Masry, 24, fish for sardines from the shore in front of an encampment of tents and makeshift shelters for people displaced by the war.

“Life is difficult,” Ghurab said. “We are trying to get food. There is no aid, we no longer receive anything. At the beginning, there was a little (humanitarian) aid, very little, but now there is nothing. has more.”

Fishermen like Ghurab and Al Masry struggle daily to bring in even a modest catch to feed their families. There are rarely any fish left from a daily catch to sell to others.

Fishing was an important part of daily life in Gaza before the war, helping people earn a living by selling their daily catch in the market and feeding the population.

But little aid reaches Gaza because of Israeli restrictions and frequent fighting, and many people have no income. The price of simple goods is well out of reach for most.

“We have to come here and risk our lives,” Al Masry said, describing Israeli army fire from the sea that he accused of targeting a fisherman on Khan Younis beach.

Ghurab also said Israeli military boats shot at a fisherman in Khan Younis.

The Israeli military did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on allegations that the army fired on fishermen.

Israel’s deadly retaliatory war against Hamas following the Islamist fighter group’s cross-border attack on October 7, 2023 devastated the densely populated Gaza Strip and displaced most of the 2.3 million residents.