Israel’s war on Gaza continues unabated, marked by a continuous stream of crimes against humanity and violations of international law every single day. Since the beginning, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has been pursuing an ethnic cleansing strategy by forcing Gazans to move south and eke out a living in Rafah or the deserts of the Sinai Peninsula. This aspect is the most apparent facet of the story. Another less publicised aspect involves the usurpation of Palestinians’ right to oversee their oil and natural gas reserves. This right is of central importance to the sustainability of any future Palestinian state, and depriving the Palestinians of their legitimate resources is yet another nail in the coffin of their aspired statehood.
By the same token, Israel’s hegemony over oil and gas reserves in its vicinity reflects a long-term ambition to become an energy hub and regional connectivity nexus. Therefore, as in any colonial settler endeavour, displacement and mass killings are merely the price to pay to continue the ruthless exploitation of resources from the native population.
The issue of Palestine’s natural gas resources came to the forefront in 1999 when the British Gas Group (BG) began exploration in a wide gas field area located 17 to 21 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza. Known as Gaza Marine, this field fell within the boundaries of the 20-mile control granted to the Palestinian Authority (PA) by the 1995 Oslo II Agreement. PA leader Yasser Arafat signed a 25-year exploration license contract with a consortium consisting of Consolidated Contractors Limited (CCC), the British Gas Group (BG), and the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF). A year later, in 2000, BG discovered two fields with reserves totalling 1.4 trillion cubic feet in Gaza Marine.
In 2001, Ariel Sharon’s election as Prime Minister signalled a more hard-line stance towards Palestine, leading to a turbulent period. Israeli Supreme Court decisions systematically challenged Palestinian sovereignty regarding control and profit rights over these fields, and proposed agreements were generally halted. By the start of the Second Intifada, Israel’s approach followed a systematic oppressive policy denying the fair distribution of the natural gas reserves in the region. This political environment dashed hopes for any win-win deal between the two protagonists, primarily due to the radical stance of the Sharon government.
Subsequently, the Israeli authorities opposed any regular funding to the PA, citing the risk of funding Hamas in Gaza as a pretext.
Israel’s overarching strategy from then until now has revolved mainly around monopolising control over the natural gas reserves in Gaza Marine and the oil reserves along the West Bank-Israel border while simultaneously depriving the Palestinians of a fair share of revenues resulting from these resources.
This approach has inflicted considerable financial setbacks on the Palestinian economy and hindered its path towards statehood. To achieve these ends, Israel takes an adversarial stance in negotiations, often citing Hamas as a reason for distrust and insecurity. Furthermore, proposals for agreements have been designed to bypass the Palestinian Authority (PA), effectively blocking any chance for a fair distribution of resources and revenues.
Recently, Israel seized the events of 7 October 2023 as an opportunity to advance its strategic goals. In the early stages of the onslaught on Gaza, discussions surfaced regarding alternative scenarios, including a proposal from the Israeli Intelligence Ministry suggesting the population transfer of Gazans to the Sinai Peninsula. Netanyahu actively engaged in lobbying the EU to exert pressure on Egypt to approve a massive influx of Gazans into the desert.
Furthermore, three weeks into the war, Israel granted new exploration licenses to six companies, including BP and ENI, to explore natural gas reserves in the G Zone, an area adjacent to Gaza’s coastline. Notably, 62% of this region falls within the maritime boundaries declared by Palestine in 2019 under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which Palestine is a signatory.
In UNCTAD’s 2019 report, the high financial cost of depriving Palestinians of the necessary financial support for development and state-building due to Israeli occupation was highlighted. The report stated, “The Marine 1 and Marine 2 reserves were discovered in 1999, and BGG began drilling for gas in 2000. Palestinians could have hypothetically monetised these fields and invested the net value of $4.592 billion for 18 years now. Assuming a low annual real rate of return of 2.5 per cent, Palestinians have already lost roughly $2.570 billion through prevention of the exercise of their right to benefit from the exploitation of their natural resources, guaranteed under international law.”
Israel has made the primary goal of expanding the scope of its occupation to continue the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Despite meek verbal warnings from key allies like the U.S., Israel continues issuing evacuation warnings for attacks targeting Rafah. If successful in its aims of ethnic cleansing, Israel could achieve its longstanding objective of gaining full control over Gaza, along with seizing control of valuable oil and gas resources. This ambition aligns with Israel’s desire to become a central hub on the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC) route and an alternative energy supplier to the European markets that aimed at decoupling from Russian gas since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
This opportunism will become more pronounced as Israel’s actions in Rafah unfold, and its relationship with international energy companies progresses. It is evident that, currently, Israel continues its two-fold strategy, which consists of arming and incentivising illegal settlers in the West Bank while aggressively pursuing the military occupation of Gaza with an eye on its natural resources.
The War on Gaza is far from being a cakewalk as Netanyahu imagined. Israeli energy ambitions have been frustrated by the countless uncertainties brought forward by the ongoing conflict. It is time for the international community not just to stop the ongoing genocide but also to assist the Palestinians in harnessing their energy resources, a fundamental aspect of their sovereign rights.
This article originally appeared in the opinion section of the Trt World Website.
