In 2000 British Gas (BG) discovered about $4 billion worth of natural gas reserves off the coast of Gaza. Wildly optimistic assessments have claimed the amount of gas in Palestine could make that nation as rich as Kuwait.
"In due reaction, since 2000, Israel has strengthened its maritime blockade on Gaza, denying Palestine basic rights over its territorial waters, driving away Palestinian fishing boats, and contaminating the waters so heavily from its naval attacks that the fishing industry essentially collapsed.
"'On its coastal littoral,' reported Peter Beaumont from Gaza several years ago, 'Gazas limitations are marked by a different fence where the bars are Israeli gunboats with their huge wakes, scurrying beyond the Palestinian fishing boats and preventing them from going outside a zone imposed by the warships.'
"It is discernible that this is directly due to Israels appetite for Palestinian gas.
In recent years, Israels energy crisis has deepened..."
Is Israel?s Operation Protective Edge Really About Natural Gas? » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"In due reaction, since 2000, Israel has strengthened its maritime blockade on Gaza, denying Palestine basic rights over its territorial waters, driving away Palestinian fishing boats, and contaminating the waters so heavily from its naval attacks that the fishing industry essentially collapsed.
"'On its coastal littoral,' reported Peter Beaumont from Gaza several years ago, 'Gazas limitations are marked by a different fence where the bars are Israeli gunboats with their huge wakes, scurrying beyond the Palestinian fishing boats and preventing them from going outside a zone imposed by the warships.'
"It is discernible that this is directly due to Israels appetite for Palestinian gas.
In recent years, Israels energy crisis has deepened..."
Is Israel?s Operation Protective Edge Really About Natural Gas? » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names