Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Israeli Troops Accused Of Illegally Killing Gaza Fisherman

(JTA) — The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has released footage of what it said was the unlawful slaying of a Palestinian fishermen by Israeli troops last month.

The video, published Thursday on the online edition of the Haaretz daily and filmed on May 15 off the coast of Gaza, shows a fishing boat with three men on it sailing fast while it is flanked by an Israeli navy vessel. The fishing boat loses speed and one of the men signals to the Israeli navy boat to stop.

The navy boat approaches the fishing boat, where B’Tselem says 25-year-old Mohammed Baqer was lying severely wounded from live rounds of ammunition shot at the fishing boat by the navy vessel during the chase. He was taken to an Israeli hospital where he died shortly after the incident, according to Haaretz.

B’Tselem in a statement about the incident wrote that the fishing boat had attempted to escape the navy boat but that it was within the 3-mile parameter around Gaza where fishing in allowed. The Gaza Strip, which is run by the Hamas terrorist group, is under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade.

The B’Tselem statement offers conflicting information on when the shots were fired, stating in one section that the fishermen “ began escaping after the navy vessel opened fire on them,” but that “the soldiers on the boat shoted for the fishermen to halt and fired in their direction.”

The Israel Defense Forces spokesperson’s unit did not react to query on the incident by Haar

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version