The unprecedented level of destruction in the Gaza Strip and Israel's ongoing war on the enclave for over three months has brought the Strip’s natural resources into the spotlight. United Nations estimates suggest that the occupation has prevented Palestinians from benefiting from their natural wealth, valued at billions of dollars. Israel’s current destructive war strives to displace the people of Gaza.
This comes a decade after British journalist Felicity Arbuthnot alerted that Israel aims to be a major source of natural gas and "some oil".
In her analysis at the time, Arbuthnot pointed out that governments and media have regarded the giant Leviathan natural gas field in the eastern Mediterranean, discovered in 2010, as "off the coasts of Israel" implicitly recognizing it as Israeli, despite parts of it lying within the waters of the Gaza Strip.
"Israeli Treasure"
Israel claims that these reserves off the Gaza Strip are a "treasure of its own", but only a small part of this gas is located in the area that Arbuthnot labeled as Israeli. She added that there is still much gas unexplored, which is gradually being discovered.
In turn, Canadian economist Michel Chossudovsky, founder and director of the Centre for Research on Globalization, who wrote with Felicity Arbuthnot in October, viewed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration of war last October on 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip as a continuation of the Gaza invasion that began in 2008 as part of "Operation Cast Lead".
Chossudovsky adds that the primary objective of the operation is the explicit military occupation of Gaza by the Israeli army forces and the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland, and the seizure of Gaza's offshore natural gas reserves, worth billions of dollars, specifically those discovered by "British Gas" in 1999 off the Strip, and the Levant Basin discoveries in 2013.
Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, indicated at the beginning of the "Flood of Al-Aqsa" operation launched on the occupation in the Gaza envelope, among its goals was to thwart an Israeli plan to take over Gaza and the West Bank and push the residents to Egypt and Jordan.
Secret Talks
On October 6, 2022, Al-Monitor reported that the Egyptian regime managed to convince Israel to start extracting natural gas off the coast of Gaza, after several months of confidential bilateral talks.
According to the newspaper, this development came after years of Israeli objections to extracting gas off the coasts of Gaza for "alleged" security reasons.
British Gas also deals with the Israeli government, and it has been noted that the Palestinian government in Gaza was bypassed in the agreement related to exploration and development rights in gas fields.
British Gas discovered the field, located about 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of the Gaza coast, in 2000, estimated to contain more than a trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The newspaper cited an Egyptian official at the time saying that "an Egyptian economic and security delegation discussed with the Israeli side the issue of allowing the extraction of natural gas off the coasts of Gaza".
The official explained to the newspaper that Israel conditioned the practical procedures for extracting gas from the fields of Gaza beginning in 2024, to ensure its security.
UN's Perspective
According to a 2019 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report, geologists and natural resource economists confirmed that the occupied Palestinian land sits atop large reservoirs of oil and gas, in Area C of the occupied West Bank and the Mediterranean coast off the Gaza Strip.
However, the occupation prevents the Palestinians from developing their energy fields to exploit and benefit from them. Consequently, the Palestinian people have been deprived of the benefits of using this natural resource to fund social and economic development and meet their energy needs.
The accumulated losses are estimated to be in the billions of dollars, and the longer Israel prevents Palestinians from exploiting their oil and gas reserves, the higher the alternative cost and the total costs of the occupation borne by the Palestinians, according to the UN report.
The report assesses the current and potential Palestinian oil and natural gas reserves that could be exploited for the benefit of the Palestinian people, which Israel prevents them from utilizing or exploits without regard to international law.
Inflated Reserves
Returning to what Arbuthnot mentioned in 2013, Leviathan was considered the most significant field ever discovered in the Levant Basin, covering about 83,000 square kilometers of the eastern Mediterranean.
Alongside the Tamar field, in the same location and discovered in 2009, the prospects indicate a wealth of energy controlled by Israel, and companies like "Noble Energy", "Avner Oil Exploration", and "Ratio Oil Exploration".
The estimated reserves of Leviathan have already increased from approximately 16.7 trillion cubic feet of gas to 19 trillion cubic feet.
Arbuthnot states that "the average oil recoverable in the region is 1.7 billion barrels, and the average gas reserves are 122 trillion cubic feet, using a geology-based assessment methodology".
Gaza's Resources
Writer Tara Allamy previously stated on the American site "Mondoweiss" that the continuous Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip cannot be viewed separately from the rich natural gas resources along its coasts, postulating that the attacks may be designed to destroy infrastructure and kill thousands to push people to migrate and leave Gaza open for occupation.
The writer explains that the Israeli project aims to build an ethnic colonial state, with Israel pursuing this goal by exporting "stolen gas" and striking deals with neighboring states in participation with the European Union. British Gas discovered Gaza's offshore gas fields 25 years ago, known today as "Gaza Marine 1" and "Gaza Marine 2", which are of interest to Israel and America for exploiting Palestinian resources.
Allamy adds that the Israeli occupation controls energy and water resources in Gaza, hindering efforts to create an independent energy infrastructure in the Strip. The occupation profits from "stolen gas" and water, while Palestinians in Gaza suffer a severe energy crisis.
Allamy points out Israel's interest in extracting gas off the coasts of Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt, attributing this to occupation goals strengthened by agreements like the Oslo Accords and the Paris Protocol, such as encouraging settlement expansion and restricting Palestinian access to resources.
