"We have no source of sustenance other than the sea. We are like fish: if we go out of the water we die". This is how Ali Awad Al-Amoudi, a Palestinian fisherman who shares his trade with his father, sons and brothers, tells what the sea means to the people in Gaza.

His fishing nets are burnt, his boats sunk, under the bombs of the Israeli armed forces. "And this," he adds, "is not only my situation, but that of all the fishermen in Gaza. When we work at sea, we eat. If we don't work, we don't eat, because we don't know any other trade'.

In Gaza, the sea has always represented breath, hope, sustenance. Despite almost 20 years of Israeli siege, fishing families have never stopped looking to the sea as a primary source of life, hope for freedom.

Since the beginning of the genocide on October 7th, the situation in the Gaza Strip is beyond humanitarian catastrophe. Among the civilian infrastructures indiscriminately hit by Israeli shelling are also those that have always ensured the livelihood of families and communities, such as agriculture and fishing.

Fishing activities in particular, which historically have been a primary source of livelihood for thousands of people in Gaza, are now almost completely interrupted due to the military offensive and the destruction of boats, materials needed for activities, and storage facilities.

After more than 600 days of genocide, thanks to the "Gaza, waves of resilience" project, 50 families were able to receive new nets to return to the sea.

This is a new intervention of support and solidarity that we imagined together with our friends and colleagues of the Union of Agricultural Work Commitees (UAWC), with whom we work on the 'Water for Gaza' campaign, and made possible by FLAI-CGIL. The trade union organisation had already generously supported us in the past, allocating to Gaza and to our campaign the funds collected from workers' contributions in the strikes of the last two years.

Today, thanks to the extraordinary work of our friends at UAWC, who have been supporting Palestinian farmers and fishermen for decades, we have been able to distribute nets to families in Gaza.

Different nets for each fishery: the maltash, light and dense, for smaller fish; the zieda, deep and strong, for larger ones; the precious shanshoula, long and delicate, for more targeted fishing.

In those nets and in the looks of those who received them there is much more than work: there is dignity and love for their people, a refusal to surrender to death. Every thread woven, every exit into the sea, is an act of resistance.

We are with them. We do not stop supporting the Palestinian people.