The spokesman for the Hamas movement, Abdel-Latif al-Kanoa announced that Hamas and the other factions in the Gaza Strip stand for the right to profit from the natural treasures of the Gaza Strip that the Israeli occupation took over, especially the natural treasure of the natural gas of the besieged Gaza Strip.
In a press release, he said that the Palestinian factions will hold a “popular maritime activity” on September 13 that will express their opposition to the blockade and the right to the natural treasures found in the gas fields and sea of the Gaza Strip.
According to him, this activity is intended to put pressure on the Israeli occupation to break the blockade and ease the suffering of the residents of the Gaza Strip and to emphasize the right of the Palestinians to enjoy their natural treasures and that the Israeli occupation has no right to take over and occupy these treasures.
“We have a right to the port and the airport and the natural treasures, especially the natural gas in the sea of the Gaza Strip and that our people will benefit from this, he stated.
The “Gaza Marin” natural gas field is the first gas field discovered in the Mediterranean off the coast of the Gaza Strip by “British Gas” company in 1999 after conducting a marine survey and drilling two test wells in the area.
According to estimates, there are natural gas reserves worth 1.2 billion dollars in this field, although the field was discovered two decades ago, to this day the gas has not been extracted from the sea.
Israel refuses to allow Palestinian, Arab or international companies to carry out any offshore development or drilling operations to extract the natural gas found off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli naval blockade of the Strip has been going on for more than 16 years.
It seems that following the crisis between Israel and Lebanon and the dispute over the marking of the maritime border and the production of natural gas from the “Karish” gas field, the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip are trying to imitate the Hezbollah methods and through terrorist threats to try and make profits from Israel.
Iran is pulling the strings behind the scenes and pushing the Hezbollah organization to threaten Israel with UAVs and precision rocket attacks on all of its natural gas facilities in the Mediterranean.
Two weeks ago, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah hosted the Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ziyad al-Nachala in his bunker in the Al-Dahiyah neighborhood in Beirut.
According to sources in the Gaza Strip, the two discussed the consequences of the recent military confrontation between the Islamic Jihad and the IDF in the Gaza Strip and also the possible consequences of the conflict between Israel and Lebanon over the maritime border and the “Karish gas field.
According to the sources in the Gaza Strip, Hassan Nasrallah asked to coordinate with Ziyad Al-Nakhalah a joint military response in the event that Hezbollah had to enter into a military conflict with Israel following the dispute over the maritime border with Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah said that he expected the Islamic Jihad to attack the “Tamar” gas rig off the shores of Ashkelon in such a scenario.
Israeli-Egyptian coordination
The “Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed” newpaper reported on June 2 of this year from senior Egyptian officials that Israel have asked Egypt to put pressure on the Hamas organization to avoid attacking Israel’s essential natural gas and oil facilities in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
Regular security consultations are held between Israel and Egypt at a senior level and Israel has updated Egyptian intelligence with the intelligence information it has about the plans of Hamas to attack Israeli gas rigs and oil installations in the Mediterranean Sea using high-speed explosive boats or sea-to-sea missiles.
Senior security officials explained to Egypt that such damage to Israel’s natural gas and oil facilities by the military wing of Hamas would harm Israel’s gas supply to Egypt, Europe and other Arab countries.
Due to the Israeli concern, cooperation between Israel and Egypt was increased in various ways, security measures were increased in the Red Sea, in the area of the border between Israel and Egypt and in northern Sinai against the forces of the ISIS branch in this area.
Egyptian officials said that Egypt is working to include this issue of securing the Israeli natural gas and oil facilities in the calm understandings between Israel and Hamas, emphasizing that any damage by Hamas to these facilities is a damage to Egypt’s interests.
Security officials in Israel claim that the military wing of Hamas has speedboats that can carry explosives up to 50 kg that using GPS devices and that can carry out precise suicide attacks on targets in the middle of the sea, just as the Houthi rebels in Yemen carry out attacks using such boats against Saudi targets.
It is easy to launch such boats towards Israel’s natural gas facilities, which are only about 20 km from the shores of the Gaza Strip.
During Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip in May 2021, there was a foiled attempt by the Hamas military wing to hit the “Tamar” natural gas facility off the coast of Gaza using tiny submarines developed by Hamas engineer Muhammad Al-Zawari, who was assassinated in Tunisia by the Israeli Mossad in 2016.
The “Iron Dome” system intercepted the rockets fired from the Gaza Strip towards the “Tmar” gas rig and a drone was intercepted by a Navy ship equipped with an advanced radar to detect drones.
However, the “Tamar” gas rig and the natural gas field will remain in their place off the coast of the Gaza Strip and will continue to be a possible target for Hamas and Islamic Jihad in any case of escalation with Israel.
Hamas currently has no interest in escalation, but things may change quickly and suddenly, we’ve been in this movie before, anything is possible in the Middle East.
The Hamas organization has been thinking for several months about renewing the naval struggle against Israel in order to remove the naval blockade over the Gaza Strip.
Immediately after the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, Yihya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, delivered a speech in which he announced the expansion of the confrontation with Israel to the heart of the sea.
He said in his speech that his organization would soon begin to coordinate with the “Jerusalem axis” to break the Israeli naval blockade on the Gaza Strip
Sources in the Gaza Strip said that Hamas was apparently planning to renew the naval aid flotillas to the Gaza Strip that were stopped by the Israeli Navy and the most prominent of which was the “Marmara” flotilla that left Turkey in May 2010.
