2/7/2025–|Last update: 10:06 (Mecca time)
Palestinian from Gaza Strip She was known as the first woman to have a fishing profession in PalestineThe prevailing norms in order to support their family are in the midst of the harsh economic and living conditions in the besieged sector. Soon, it became a familiar face among the fishermen. Her name was given on Ship No. 36 Within “alliance Freedom Fleet“, Who seeks to break the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza since 2007.
Generator
Madeleine Mohamed Mahmoud Kalab was born on May 21, 1994, in Beach camp For Palestinian refugees West Gaza CityAnd it was raised in a family of 4 individuals, the largest of them.
Her family descends from the village of Hamama, located in historical Palestine, which has been displaced Israel Its population forcibly in 1948. Since then, the family has moved between a number of Refugee camps Inside the Gaza Strip, until the situation settled in the beach camp.
In 1990, Madeleine’s father was paralyzed caused by a joint disease as a result of his work in the sea, forcing him to leave the fishing profession that was the source of the family’s livelihood, and he was later martyred during the Israeli war on Gaza in 2023.
In 2018, Madeleine married a fisherman who got to know him while working at sea, and had 4 children.
Study and scientific training
Madeleine received her education in Gaza City schools, and ended the secondary stage at Bashir Al -Rayes School for Girls. She continued her university studies and obtained a diploma in fashion design from the Union of Churches in Gaza.
Later on, she joined the diploma of the executive secretariat at the Jerusalem College of Technical Sciences, but it was unable to complete it due to its difficult financial conditions.
Above sea waves
Madeleine’s relationship with the sea began since her childhood, because it is only meters away from her home in the beach camp, so she was almost daily.
She used to help her father in the hunting nets and spin it, and she learned early riding the small boat known as “Hasaka” and blasphemy, and soon this turned into a profession under the weight of need. After her father was paralyzed and the absence of the breadwinner, Madeleine was forced to go into hunting at the age of thirteen.
Madeleine held responsibility early, and the backbone of her family became a livelihood for her day and basic requirements, with the participation of her brothers who worked alongside her. She says she is proud to be a support for her family in the absence of any other income.
Madeleine was sailing daily until the limits of the Israeli naval siege imposed on Gaza, hunting and selling fish in the markets to secure a livelihood, but the occupation boats did not leave them alone; In 2016, the occupation boats intercepted and confiscated its boat, and the fishing nets stole more than once, in repeated attacks.
After the extermination war launched by Israel on the Strip on October 7, 2023, Madeleine lost her only source of livelihood, and her family and her family were forced to leave their house in Al -Shati camp, and the displacement to a number of areas in Gaza, the first of which is Al -Shifa Medical Hospital and then City Khan Yunis Farvah Then to Deir Al -Balah The camp Nasser.
Destroyed boats
On February 9, 2025, Madeleine returned to her home in Gaza City, after the Israeli occupation withdrew from the city within Banners of the ceasefire agreement With the Islamic Resistance Movement (agitation).
However, with the resumption of the Israeli aggression on the Strip in March 2025, Israeli war boats targeted Madeleine boats and their husband, and destroyed a warehouse that they used to store hunting equipment and tools, and thus lost its livelihood again.
Madeleine faces a number of complex challenges; The most prominent of which is targeting the repeated occupation of Palestinian fishermen, forcing her to stop going down to the sea during the war periods, and then lost its only source of income. Added to this is the negative societal view surrounding women working in occupations that are monopolized by men, including marine fishing.
Madeleine ship
Madeleine was named at the 36th ship in the Freedom Flotilla coalition, which aims to break the Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007.
The ship sailed in early June 2025 from the Italian port of Catania towards the Strip, and it carried 12 activists of multiple nationalities, in addition to humanitarian aid that includes food, medicine and medical equipment, before the Israeli occupation forces seized it at dawn of June 9 while they were in international waters on their way to Gaza.
Madeleine learned about the ship from one of her activists’ friends in Ireland, who told her that the goal of the trip is to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip, defying the Israeli siege, and activists were affected by her story, and they decided to launch her name on the ship in honor of her steadfastness and struggle, as a Canadian activist contacted her, and told her that they wanted to give her name on another boat starting in Gaza to break the Israeli siege.