Sharjah24 – AFP: 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.
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 tonnes of fish and seafood were netted from Gaza's waters last year, according to the Israeli authorities. Just 300 tonnes were exported to the West Bank.
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.
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