Every night off Gaza beach you can see the lights of fishing boats rising and falling in the swell.

But they are defying an Israeli ban on all Palestinian fishing, and Rami al-Habeel knows how dangerous that can be.

Last week, he saw his friend, Hani al-Najaar, shot dead on the deck of their trawler.

For more than three months the Israelis have ordered all fishing craft to stay in port…

…Tens of thousands of Gazans depend on fishing, and - as their desperation has mounted - some have been putting out to sea regardless of the ban…

…But there is always the danger that the gunboats will move in. And Mr Habeel says that is what happened last week when he and his crewmates were fishing off the town of Dier Ballah.

He says a gunboat steamed up from the south.

According to Mr Habeel, it did not issue any verbal warning, but opened fire first at the cables holding the nets - cutting them adrift.

Then he says the Israelis circled the unarmed fishermen spraying their craft with machine gun fire from no more than 20m away.

Mr Habeel says that one of the bullets hit Hani al-Najaar - ripping open the side of his head.

“I saw him killed,” Mr Habeel says. “I couldn’t bear it. God bless him.”

Mr Najaar leaves two children.

The Israelis say that on the day in question boats had been pushing too far out to sea. On a number of occasions warning shots were fired.

“We did not identify in any situation any of our warning shots hitting a boat - at all,” said a military spokeswoman. “So we are not aware of any fisherman being hit.”

But later, as the trawler lays beached for repairs in Gaza City harbour, well over 100 bullet holes are clearly visible.

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