Israeli minister suggests offshore seaport for Gaza

Already-tense relations between former allies Israel and Turkey were significantly downgraded after Israeli commandos staged a botched pre-dawn raid on a vessel in a six-ship flotilla in May 2010 as it tried to run the Israeli naval blockade on Gaza.

Gaza had an airport until Israeli armed forces destroyed it in 2000.

Israel’s Intelligence and Transport Minister Israel Katz, seen as a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told the Washington Post on Monday that while the island has been on the cards for years, the plan had only just started gathering steam.

Israel has officially designated HAMAS as a terrorist organization.

Israel would be responsible for security in the waters surrounding the island, Katz said.

Speaking at the 2016 Herzliya Conference last week, Minister Katz described his plan for an island with a port off the Gaza Strip, connected to the mainland with a three-mile bridge, with no residential buildings, and, most important-no place for Hamas to dig terror tunnels. “They need to be fulfilled the same as our apology demand”. Additionally, Turkey and Germany will jointly build a power plant in Gaza, and Turkey will build a desalination plant there. He added that although Palestinians and the worldwide community would be in charge of running the port, security will be supervised by Israel. Critics say the closure amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents.

The smuggling attempt was foiled by Defense Ministry Land Crossings Authority inspectors at the Kerem Shalom Crossing, working with the ISA (Shin Bet), the Israeli Security Agency. Because Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza, Palestinians have been unable to import construction materials to rebuild it.

In the West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoner Club Association in Ramallah said the Israeli army detained early on Sunday 14 Palestinians during raids on several towns and cities in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

“The problem of Gaza is political at the end”, the professor said.