Alwaght | News & Analysis Website

Alwaght- The Gaza strip is a 365 square kilometer pene-exclave under an Israeli-imposed land, air, and naval blockade which has practically imprisoned Palestinians in their own land. To its north and east, territories occupied by the Israelis confine the strip, to its southwest Egypt is contributing to this blockade by controlling the Rafah border crossing, and to its west is the Mediterranean sea, which is under a maritime restriction.
Gaza’s geography, hence, is political, as it is ruled by the anti-occupation movement, Hamas, and is home to various resistance groups; and economical, as recent findings show that just off the strip’s coast an underwater treasure is waiting to be excavated.
“A gift from God”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the gas under the Mediterranean Sea “a gift from God.” However, to whom has this gift been sent?
Legally, the gas off Gaza’s shore belongs to Palestinians. But in the eyes of the ethnocentric Israeli regime which regards its people as superior to the rest of humanity as God’s chosen people, the Zionists can claim everything that belongs to Palestinians.
Netanyahu has relinquished anti-monopoly laws claiming the move is essential for the regime’s “national security” as it would lead to energy independence.
Yet, this gas, much like the land they established their regime on does not belong to the Zionists. In order to secure their grip on this much-coveted natural resource and much-needed source of energy and profit for Palestinians, the Israelis have imposed a maritime blockade off Gaza’s coast to sabotage any Palestinian attempt to use it.
Naval Blockade
Observers believe that a plan to monopolize gas is the reason behind the aggressive Israeli naval blockade.
The Palestinian human rights group al-Haq has issued a report entitled “Annexing Energy, which says: “Israel has closed off access to Palestine’s territorial waters to protect Israeli gas platforms and export pipelines.”
Gaza’s gas fields were discovered 15 years ago when the Israelis also found a gas field near the maritime border with Gaza.
Since then, the Israelis have been restricting the strip’s maritime zone to 3 to 6 nautical miles beyond the coast. The militarization of the waters has since been increasing with incidents such as shooting fishermen and blocking aid ships as examples of the how the Israeli occupation forces attempt to hinder possible access to the resources.
“The December 2008 military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves,” said a report published in 20009 on Global Research, a center for research on globalization.
Officially, the naval restriction took effect in 2009 after a bloody war against the Palestinians in Gaza ended. The Israelis had left the sea blockade in place even after retreating from the strip where 1,400 people were killed.
al-Haq deplored the Israeli pillaging of resources that rightfully belong to Palestinians. “Israel’s unlawful appropriation, exploitation and prevented development of oil and gas resources constitute plunder and further breach Palestine’s right to self-determination,” its report said.
International Involvement
With several countries, European and non-European, eager to minimize their dependency on Russian gas, they will certainly cooperate with Tel Aviv even if that means treading on the Palestinian cause.   
Such states include Turkey which has repeatedly defended the Palestinians but is willing to look the other way when it comes to Israeli atrocities committed against Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, in order to benefit from prospective gas deals. Recently thawing relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv indicate that the two are on the path of making profit out of the Palestinians people’s suffering. While Gazans struggle to make ends meet under the Israeli blockade, major powers will be absorbing the riches of the pene-exclave.
“By their actions, international corporations and states, including EU members, concluding pipeline agreements to export gas from Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan fields … will effectively support and profit from Israel’s continued illegal closure of Palestinian maritime waters,” al-Haq concluded.
So, the blame falls not only on the leech of an occupying regime, but also on the international community, that does only remain silent over the issue but also takes part in the theft of Palestinian reserves while Gazans suffer under prison-like conditions.