Gaza fish restaurants thrive far from the foodie trail

Palestinian fishermen unload their catch from a boat, upon their return to the coastline of Gaza City, in this file photo taken on Sept. 22, 2021. (AFP)
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Updated 26 October 2021
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Gaza fish restaurants thrive far from the foodie trail

  • Of the 4,200 tons of fish and seafood netted from Gaza’s waters last year, just 300 tons were exported to the West Bank

GAZA CITY: The Gaza Strip might be off-limits for foreign foodies but the coastal Palestinian enclave is brimming with seafood restaurants, many owned by one local family whose culinary hook is their matriarch’s spicy fish tajine.

Munir Abu Hasira arrives at the Gaza port’s fish market at daybreak, but holds back as traders snatch up sardines and other fish caught during the night.

He is angling for more discerning catches like grouper, sea bream and large shrimp, which can go for around 70 shekels ($22) a kilo — a small fortune in the impoverished enclave, under Israeli blockade since 2007.

“It’s expensive because of the economic situation, but we buy the fish to supply restaurants and to export” to the occupied West Bank, he says, as workers pile fresh fish into a van.

For decades, the Abu Hasira family were fishermen, but since opening their first restaurant in the 1970s, they have gradually traded their fishing kit for chef’s tools.

Gaza fishermen say they struggle to eke out a living, snared by Israeli restrictions on the enclave’s fishing zone and on importing equipment into the enclave, from boat motors to sonar devices for finding shoals.

Problems like overfishing and pollution blight the local industry.

Some 4,200 tons of fish and seafood were netted from Gaza’s waters last year, according to the Israeli authorities. Just 300 tons were exported to the West Bank.

Sitting on a chair in a Gaza courtyard, Eid Abu Hasira, in his 80s, said he was the last of the family’s fishermen.

“I sold everything in 2013,” said the head of the family, sporting a white moustache and wearing a traditional robe and headdress.

“Today, we are in the fish trade, and have 13 Abu Hasira restaurants,” he said, clutching Muslim prayer beads as he leaned on a wooden cane.

One of his ancestors was a prominent Jewish Moroccan rabbi, who died during a trip to Egypt in the 19th century.

A descendent in Egypt had a vision that “they had to go to Gaza,” Eid Abu Hasira said.

“So we came here. My grandfather chose to live off the sea,” he said, adding that a Jewish branch of the family lives in Israel, while those in Gaza are Muslim.

As a young boy, his mother would cook up a seafood tajine that has become the Abu Hasira family chain’s signature dish.

Moeen Abu Hasira, 56, paid homage to his family’s culinary heritage, from their signature shrimp and tomato tajine, known as “zibdiyit,” to a fish tajine made with tahini, herbs and pine nuts, to grilled grouper.

“The secret of Gaza cuisine is strong chili,” he said from the kitchen of his restaurant, which he opened earlier this year.

The Abu Hasira family’s clientele has changed over time.

“Until the start of the first intifada, our restaurants were packed. Israelis came to eat here and so did tourists,” Moeen Abu Hasira said, referring to the first Palestinian uprising in 1987.

Since the Israeli blockade began in 2007 after the Islamist group Hamas took control of the enclave, few international tourists, foodies or gastronomic guide writers have visited.

Now, the family’s restaurants cater to a well-off Palestinian clientele, but Moeen Abu Hasira said times were hard as unemployment in Gaza hovers around 50 percent.

“Nobody will give you a star” in recognition of your restaurant, said the chef, who trained in French cuisine in a restaurant in the Israeli city of Jaffa.

“We did not learn in cooking schools or universities. There is none of that in Gaza,” he said. “We all learn from each other.”


UK PM tells Netanyahu peace process ‘should lead’ to Palestinian state

Updated 4 sec ago
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UK PM tells Netanyahu peace process ‘should lead’ to Palestinian state

  • Downing Street: The PM said ‘that the UK stands ready to do everything it can to support a political process, which should also lead to a viable and sovereign Palestinian state’
  • Downing Street: The also ‘reiterated that it was vital to ensure humanitarian aid can now flow uninterrupted into Gaza, to support the Palestinians who desperately need it’
LONDON: UK premier Keir Starmer told Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday that any peace process in the Middle East should pave the way for a Palestinian state, Downing Street said.
The two leaders held a call that focused on the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a UK government spokesperson said.
During the conversation, “both agreed that we must work toward a permanent and peaceful solution that guarantees Israel’s security and stability,” the British readout of the call added.
“The prime minister added that the UK stands ready to do everything it can to support a political process, which should also lead to a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.”
Starmer also “reiterated that it was vital to ensure humanitarian aid can now flow uninterrupted into Gaza, to support the Palestinians who desperately need it,” the statement added.
Starmer “offered his personal thanks for the work done by the Israeli government to secure the release of the hostages, including British hostage Emily Damari,” the statement added.
“To see the pictures of Emily finally back in her family’s arms was a wonderful moment but a reminder of the human cost of the conflict,” Starmer added, according to the statement.
A truce agreement between Israel and Hamas to end 15 months of war in Gaza came into effect on Sunday.
The first part of the three-phase deal should last six weeks and see 33 hostages returned from Gaza in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners.

Yemen’s vice president: Trump ‘key to defeating Houthis’

Updated 19 sec ago
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Yemen’s vice president: Trump ‘key to defeating Houthis’

ADEN: The return of Donald Trump to the US presidency was key to curbing the Houthi militia’s threat to regional stability and maritime security, Yemen’s vice president said on Tuesday.

Aidarous Al-Zubaidi compared Trump’s leadership and willingness to employ military strength with the Biden administration, which he said had allowed the Houthis to consolidate power, bolster their military capabilities and extend their reach beyond Yemen.
“Trump knows what he wants. He is a strong decision maker,” Zubaidi said. “We are fans, admirers and supporters of Trump’s policy .... because he has a personality that has enough decision-making power to rule America and the world.”

A coordinated US-led international, regional and local strategy was needed to strike and weaken the Houthis and stop their attacks against commercial Western vessels navigating through the Red Sea, Zubaidi said. The Houthis targeted more than 100 vessels with drones and missile strikes last year.

“We hope that America will be motivated to deter the Houthis because they will continue to threaten maritime navigation. They are the biggest threat,” Zubaidi said. He said he expected talks with the new US administration to begin soon.

Zubaidi heads the Southern Transitional Council, which favors an independent southern Yemen. The group holds three seats on the eight-strong Presidential Leadership Council, the Aden-based coalition government opposed to the Houthis.


A Libyan warlord is arrested in Italy on a warrant from the International Criminal Court

View of the ICC, the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP)
Updated 8 min 39 sec ago
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A Libyan warlord is arrested in Italy on a warrant from the International Criminal Court

  • The Hague-based court has issued a handful of new warrants against Libyans in the past year after opening an investigation into Libya in 2011 at the request of the U.N. Security Council
  • The ICC says it currently has 11 arrest warrants, for which seven people are still at large

ROME: Italian police have arrested a Libyan warlord on a warrant from the International Criminal Court, the justice ministry, Italian news reports and a Libyan official said Tuesday.
Ossama Anjiem, also known as Ossama al-Masri, heads the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious network of detention centers run by the government-backed Special Defense Force. The SDF acts as a military police unit combating high-profile crimes including kidnappings, murders as well as illegal migration.
Like many other militias in western Libya, the SDF has been implicated in atrocities in the civil war that followed the overthrow and killing of longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Recently, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor issued arrest warrants over alleged crimes in Libya beyond the civil war, including in detention facilities where human rights groups have documented abuses.
Italian newspapers Avvenire and La Stampa reported that al-Masri was arrested in Turin on Sunday on an warrant from the Hague-based court after he attended a Juventus-Milan soccer match the night before. His lawyer Daniele Folino confirmed the arrest, but said he couldn’t provide details since he hadn’t been officially appointed.
The Justice Ministry said in a statement that the court had requested al-Masiri's arrest. “Given the complex correspondence, the minister is considering the formal transmission of the ICC request to the chief prosecutor's office in Rome,” a statement said.
Ali Omar, head of Libya Crimes Watch, a local watchdog, hailed Italy’s move as a “positive initiative” on the road to holding those behind atrocities against Libyans and migrants accountable, including al-Masri.
“This move will certainly contribute to reducing the systematic violations committed on a large scale in the prisons of eastern and western Libya,” he told The Associated Press.
He called on the Italian government to hand al-Masri to the ICC to face justice, since the Libya judiciary is “unwilling, unable and incapable of prosecuting those accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Abdel-Moaz Nouri Abu Arqoub, the head of the RRI center in the western town of Ain Zara, condemned the arrest as “an arbitrary detention.” A statement late Monday posted on the institution's Facebook page called on authorities to “bear their responsibility towards this (Italy’s) shameful position.”
A spokesman for the internationally recognized Libyan government in Tripoli didn’t answer calls seeking comment.
The Hague-based court has issued a handful of new warrants against Libyans in the past year after opening an investigation into Libya in 2011 at the request of the U.N. Security Council. In October, it unsealed arrest warrants against six men, but other warrants have remained sealed. Al-Masri's name doesn't appear on any of the public warrants.
The ICC says it currently has 11 arrest warrants, for which seven people are still at large. In a recent report, the ICC prosecutor's office said it expected to issue new warrants in 2025 related to crimes in detention facilities.
Libya has been divided for years between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. Currently, it is governed by Abdul-Hami Dbeibah’s government in Tripoli and by the administration of Prime Minister Ossama Hammad in the east.
Western Libya is controlled by an array of lawless militias allied with Dbeibah’s government, while forces of powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter control the east and south.
Mediterranea Saving Humans, a humanitarian organization that has denounced the atrocities against migrants in Libyan detention centers, said al-Masri's arrest followed “years of complaints and testimonies from victims made to the International Criminal Court, which conducted a difficult investigation.”
The group has long condemned the Italian government's financial support of Libya's coast guard to stem migration, and noted that al-Masri was detained in Italy.
“He was hiding in Italy, of course, because here the traffickers feel safe,” the group said in a statement, suggesting that Italian authorities didn't want the information to be released but that it leaked out thanks to reporting by the Avvenire journalist Nello Scavo, who has long documented atrocities against migrants in Libya.
In a social media post, Scavo cited “dedicated sources” in reporting the arrest.
 

 


Six killed as Syria security forces launch sweep in Homs province

Updated 18 min 36 sec ago
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Six killed as Syria security forces launch sweep in Homs province

  • The Observatory later specified that among those killed, two were “armed individuals” who died during clashes with security forces, while the other four were “civilians executed by local gunmen who entered the town” alongside the security forces

BEIRTU, Lebanon: Six people were killed on Tuesday in Syria’s central Homs province, a war monitor said, as security forces launched a sweep of the area.
The security forces were operating in the area around the village of Ghour Al-Gharbiya in western Homs “against the remaining militias supporting” ousted president Bashar Assad, the official news agency SANA reported.
The operation also targeted drug traffickers and smugglers, SANA said, citing a security source.
An “arms depot and munitions belonging to the ousted regime” were found, it added, reporting that violent clashes had broken out.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six people had been killed in the Shiite-majority village, which lies close to the border with Lebanon.
The Observatory later specified that among those killed, two were “armed individuals” who died during clashes with security forces, while the other four were “civilians executed by local gunmen who entered the town” alongside the security forces.
Tanks were also deployed to the area, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that the village “hosted local groups close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah,” adding that those groups had left the area after the fall of Assad on December 8.
Hezbollah was one of Assad’s key backers in the nearly 14-year conflict that broke out with the former president’s violent repression of pro-democracy protests in 2011.
The Observatory said dozens were arrested during the latest security sweep. Recent weeks have seen widespread arrests of those accused of loyalty to Assad.
Islamist-led rebels forced Assad from power last month after a lightning offensive that saw them capture swathes of the country in 11 days.
Rights groups have reported violations by the new security authorities, including summary executions and the seizure of people’s homes.
The new authorities, however, have sought to reassure minorities in particular that their rights will be safeguarded.
 

 


Israel launches ‘significant’ military operation in West Bank, at least eight Palestinians killed

Updated 21 January 2025
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Israel launches ‘significant’ military operation in West Bank, at least eight Palestinians killed

  • “We are acting systematically and resolutely against the Iranian axis wherever it extends its arms – in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen,” Netanyahu said
  • The military said soldiers, police and intelligence services had begun a counter-terrorism operation in Jenin

JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH: Israeli security forces backed by helicopters raided the volatile West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, killing at least eight Palestinians in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “large-scale and significant military operation.”
The action, launched a day after US President Donald Trump declared he was lifting sanctions on ultranationalist Israeli settlers who attacked Palestinian villages, was announced by Netanyahu as a new offensive against Iranian-backed militants.
“We are acting systematically and resolutely against the Iranian axis wherever it extends its arms – in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said. Judea and Samaria are terms Israel uses for the occupied West Bank.
The move into Jenin, where the Israeli army has carried out multiple raids and large-scale incursions over recent years, comes only two days after the start of a ceasefire in Gaza and underscores the threat of more violence in the West Bank.
The military said soldiers, police and intelligence services had begun a counter-terrorism operation in Jenin. It follows a weeks-long operation by Palestinian security forces in self-rule areas of the West Bank to reassert control in the adjacent refugee camp, a major center of armed militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both of which get support from Iran.
Gaza-based Hamas, which has expanded its reach in the West Bank over recent years, called on Palestinians in the territory to escalate fighting against Israel.
As the operation began, Palestinian security forces withdrew from the refugee camp and the sound of heavy gunfire could be heard in mobile phone footage shared on social media.
Palestinian health services said at least eight Palestinians were killed and 35 wounded as the Israeli raid began, a week after an Israeli air strike in the Jenin refugee camp killed at least three Palestinians and wounded scores more.
Since the October 2023 start of the war in Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis have been killed in the West Bank and Israel and thousands of Palestinians have been detained in regular Israeli raids.
“Protecting settlers”
Hard-line pro-settler Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has responsibility for large parts of Israeli policy in the West Bank, said the operation was the start of a “strong and ongoing campaign” against militant groups “for the protection of settlements and settlers.”
Smotrich earlier welcomed Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on settlers accused of violence against Palestinians and said he looked forward to cooperating with the new administration in expanding settlements.
Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land Israel captured in 1967. Most countries consider Israel’s settlements on territory seized in war to be illegal. Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.
The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule over some territory in the West Bank under Israeli military occupation.
In the days leading up to the Israeli military operation, Palestinians throughout the West Bank said multiple roadblocks had been set up throughout the territory, where violence has resurged since the start of the war in Gaza.
Late on Monday, bands of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians, smashing cars and burning property, near the village of Al-Funduq, an area where three Israelis were killed in a shooting earlier this month.
The military said it had opened an investigation into the incident, which it said involved dozens of Israeli civilians, some in masks.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the settler attack in Al-Funduq as well as the sudden appearance of multiple new barriers and roadblocks, which it said were aimed at “dismembering the West Bank.”
“We call on the new American administration to intervene to stop these crimes and Israeli policies that will not bring peace and security to anyone,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ office said in a statement.