Palestinians rally at Gaza City's seaport against Israel's blockade

Dozens of Palestinians on Tuesday protested at Gaza City's seaport against the 15-year Israeli blockade imposed on the coastal enclave. 

During the demonstration, organised by several Palestinian factions including the Gaza-run Hamas, dozens of boats held another sea march, with drones belonging to armed Palestinian factions flying around to protect them.

With Palestinian flags fluttering in the wind, demonstrators chanted against Israel and its violations against the Palestinian people. 

They demanded the Palestinians' right to natural resources, mainly the gas fields discovered in 2000 off the coast of the Gaza Strip.

Mohammed al-Sawalhi, a Gaza-based protester, said  to The New Arab, "The natural gas is ours (...) we only have the right to use and invest it in a bid to increase our economic situation.” 

"The illegal Israeli blockade has been preventing us from practising our rights in everything, not only in investing in our natural sources," he added.  "We have the right to travel freely around the world, as well as, we have to live in freedom and peace in Gaza." 

"Because of the Israeli blockade,  thousands of students were not allowed to leave Gaza to continue their education abroad," Sami Abu Salem, another Gaza-based protester, told The New Arab.

In addition, he says, hundreds of Gazan patients lost their lives because Israel prevented treatment in the West Bank-based Palestinian hospitals or prevented the medical equipment and supplies from entering the coastal enclave. 

The protestors called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its blockade and uphold the Palestinians' right to exploit their natural resources.

A gas field 36 km west of Gaza City was discovered in 2000, but no major progress has been made in its development and exploitation so far.

In 2006, Israel imposed its illegal siege on the coastal enclave as Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist group, won a general election in the Palestinian Territories. Their electoral success resulted in clashes with rivals from Fatah, the movement that runs the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Israel tightened its blockade against Gaza after Hamas forcibly took over the territory from Fatah in 2007.