Category:

Israeli Invasion of Gaza Is Likely, Official Says; Brief Cease-Fire Is Set

TEL AVIV — Even as Israel and Hamas agreed to suspend hostilities briefly on Thursday at the request of the United Nations, a senior Israeli military official said that his government was increasingly likely to order a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip that it had hoped to avoid. Though Israel initially set limited goals of halting the rocket assaults against it and degrading Hamas, the Islamist movement that dominates Gaza, the group’s tenacity and surprisingly deep arsenal have led to widespread calls to expand the mission. The military official said only “boots on the ground” could eradicate terrorism from Gaza and indicated that Israel was even considering a long-term reoccupation of the coastal territory. But with the Palestinian death toll reaching 214 on Wednesday, Israel and the Gaza militants agreed to end the violence for five hours on Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For Israel, it […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Natural Gas Discoveries Fueling Gaza Crisis?

Yesterday [Tuesday July 8th], Israeli defence minister and former Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon announced that Operation Protective Edge marks the beginning of a protracted assault on Hamas. The operation "won’t end in just a few days," he said, adding that "we are preparing to expand the operation by all means standing at our disposal so as to continue striking Hamas." This morning, he said: "We continue with strikes that draw a very heavy price from Hamas. We are destroying weapons, terror infrastructures, command and control systems, Hamas institutions, regime buildings, the houses of terrorists, and killing terrorists of various ranks of command… The campaign against Hamas will expand in the coming days, and the price the organization will pay will be very heavy." But in 2007, a year before Operation Cast Lead, Ya’alon’s concerns focused on the 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Natural gas field discovered on Gaza’s coast

Palestinian MP Dr Salem Salama, a member of the economic committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council, announced that the Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip has discovered a natural gas field off the coast of the central province. In remarks to Sout Al-Aqsa on Monday morning, he noted that the field is only 200 to 300 meters away from the central province’s beach, which means that the natural gas can be easily extracted. “The fact that the field is so close to the beach will facilitate the work of any company that might invest in this field. The return will be great for the Gaza Strip, in economic terms” , he added. Salama also revealed that the Palestinian Legislative Council has summoned the Minister of Interior and the Minister of Economy to provide more details about the subject and to discuss the government’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Abbas 'seeks $1B deal with Russia on Gaza natural gas field

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan. 23 (UPI) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is in Moscow on a four-day visit seeking to secure a $1 billion deal with Russia to develop a natural gas field off the Gaza Strip, The move would expand what appears to be a determined Russian push into the energy-rich Eastern Mediterranean, Russian media reports indicated. Russia signed a 25-year agreement with Syria’s embattled regime Dec. 25 that gives Russia’s state-controlled Soyuzneftegaz exclusive exploration, development and production rights over 850 square miles of Syrian waters, Moscow’s first real foothold in the booming Levant Basin. The U.S. Geological Survey reported in 2010 that the basin, which covers Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus and the Gaza Strip, contains at least 123 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and 1.7 billion barrels of oil. The Syrian deal gives Russian President Vladimir Putin a way into a region whose resources have […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Abbas ‘seeks $1B deal with Russia on Gaza natural gas field

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan. 23 (UPI) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is in Moscow on a four-day visit seeking to secure a $1 billion deal with Russia to develop a natural gas field off the Gaza Strip, The move would expand what appears to be a determined Russian push into the energy-rich Eastern Mediterranean, Russian media reports indicated. Russia signed a 25-year agreement with Syria’s embattled regime Dec. 25 that gives Russia’s state-controlled Soyuzneftegaz exclusive exploration, development and production rights over 850 square miles of Syrian waters, Moscow’s first real foothold in the booming Levant Basin. The U.S. Geological Survey reported in 2010 that the basin, which covers Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus and the Gaza Strip, contains at least 123 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and 1.7 billion barrels of oil. The Syrian deal gives Russian President Vladimir Putin a way into a region whose resources have […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Fuel crisis creating Gazan emergency, U.N. says

U.N. special envoy for Palestinian rights Richard Falk said Tuesday the lack of electricity for 1.7 million residents in Gaza Strip is sparking a catastrophe. “The fuel shortage and power cuts have undermined an already precarious infrastructure, severely disrupting the provision of basic services, including health, water and sanitation,” he said in a statement. “The onset of winter is certain to make things even worse.” Falk said the only power plant in Gaza Strip closed down three weeks ago because of a fuel shortage. Most Gazans have power for about six hours per day. This lack of electricity has crippled much of the region’s infrastructure. Falk said about 3,000 residents of the Gazan neighborhood of Az Zeitoun have been wading through raw sewage because a treatment plant there overflowed as a result of a power failure. Falk warned that other water treatment facilities […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Israel drills disputed West Bank oilfield with 3.5B barrels

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Nov. 6 (UPI) — Israel’s Givot Olam oil company says it’s exploring an oil field that could contain 3.53 billion barrels of crude, which along with the rich natural gas fields the Jewish state’s found under the Mediterranean Sea seems set to make it a regional energy power. There’s only one problem: Most of the Meged field, where Givot Olam started drilling in 2011, appears to lie in Palestinian West Bank, which Israel has occupied since June1967. On Tuesday, just hours before U.S. Secretary of state John Kerry arrived to press Israel on Washington’s latest peace initiative, Israeli negotiators told the Palestinians that the Separation Wall the Jewish state’s building across the West Bank will mark the border with a future Palestinian state. That would mean almost the entire Meged, which starts just inside Israel near the pre-1967 Green Line that separates the Jewish state from […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Gaza gas now a ‘serious prospect.’ says Tony Blair

GAZA, Oct. 17 (UPI) — The prospect of the impoverished Palestinian Authority finally being able to develop a natural gas field 20 miles off the Gaza Strip’s Mediterranean coast, 13 years after it was discovered, is looking increasingly good amid U.S.-led efforts to bolster the Palestinian economy. “For the first time in over a decade, there’s a serious prospect Gaza gas will actually happen,” former British Prime Minister Tony Blair , divulged this week. “The Palestinian side is resolved; the Israeli side will take a little longer,” he told the Financial Times in Jerusalem. Although the project seems much closer to fruition than it’s ever been, previous plans to encourage peace efforts in the Middle East have crashed in flames because of the abiding hostility between the two sides and the continuing 46-year Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Blair is the Jerusalem-based representative of the Middle East Quartet, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Gaza gas now a 'serious prospect.' says Tony Blair

GAZA, Oct. 17 (UPI) — The prospect of the impoverished Palestinian Authority finally being able to develop a natural gas field 20 miles off the Gaza Strip’s Mediterranean coast, 13 years after it was discovered, is looking increasingly good amid U.S.-led efforts to bolster the Palestinian economy. “For the first time in over a decade, there’s a serious prospect Gaza gas will actually happen,” former British Prime Minister Tony Blair , divulged this week. “The Palestinian side is resolved; the Israeli side will take a little longer,” he told the Financial Times in Jerusalem. Although the project seems much closer to fruition than it’s ever been, previous plans to encourage peace efforts in the Middle East have crashed in flames because of the abiding hostility between the two sides and the continuing 46-year Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Blair is the Jerusalem-based representative of the Middle East Quartet, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple