Israel Plans to Build Artificial Island Off the Coast of Gaza

The Israeli government is working on a plan to build an artificial island — with an airport and seaport — off the Gaza Strip, ostensibly in a bid to mitigate the difficulties of Palestinians living in the besieged enclave, although Palestinian officials believe the initiative really aims at further severing Gaza from the West Bank.

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Transport and Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told foreign journalists at a press conference that the government is already searching for financial partners to back the US$5 billion project.

The state official explained that the artificial island would be three square miles and linked to Gaza by a three-mile bridge. He added that although Palestinians and the international community would be in charge of running the port, security will be supervised by Israel.

Gaza had an airport until Israeli armed forces destroyed it in 2000. Because Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza, Palestinians have been unable to import construction materials to rebuild it.

Fishermen use a small seaport, but it is too small to handle container ships.

Husam Zumlot, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Muhammad Abbas, said the move was "dubious" and "politically motivated," arguing it would lead to "the final severing of Gaza from the rest of the occupied territory of the state of Palestine."

Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip, which was imposed by the government after Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006, prevents the flow of foreign aid to Gaza and the entry of construction materials urgently needed to rebuild the territory, which has been routinely bombed by the Israeli military over the years.

According to the United Nations, electricity and power shortages, the highest unemployment rate in the world and an inability to access even the most basic necessities such as food and clean water mean that Gaza will effectively be uninhabitable by 2020.

In September of 2011, a five-member panel of independent United Nations rights experts reporting to the U.N. Human Rights Council concluded that the blockade had subjected Gazans to collective punishment in "flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law."