BICOM

A senior Israeli minister said yesterday that he plans to push a proposal to build an artificial island port off the Gaza coast that would help increase the number of goods entering the territory.

Yisrael Katz, who is Minister of Intelligence and Transport, gave an interview to AP, in which he said that an off-shore island off the Gaza coast is part of his wider vision of “economic peace”.

He said that the three-square mile island would be connected to the coast by a three-mile long bridge. The island would be under the control of the Palestinians and the international community, apart from security which Israel would supervise.

Katz suggested that the project would take five years to build at a cost of more than £4bn. In addition to a seaport, Katz suggested the island could also host a desalination plant, power station and even a future airport.

Katz said: “No Palestinian can oppose this, not Abu Mazen (Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas) and not Hamas, because it gives them an opening to the world.”

However, AP also quotes Nabil Shaath, President Abbas’s adviser for foreign affairs, who said: “Katz’s idea is to build a place that will be easy for Israel to control.”

Israel currently places restrictions on some dual-use goods entering the Gaza Strip which can be used for armaments and military infrastructure. Israel has intercepted prohibited goods on numerous occasions since Operation Protective Edge in 2014, as Hamas has attempted to replenish its rocket arsenal and rebuilt a tunnel network designed to attack Israel. Nonetheless, Israel permits on average the entry of around 850 truckloads of goods into Gaza each day.

Katz, who is also a member of Israel’s security cabinet, is quoted in the article saying that although he has no intention of challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “the day he retires, I am running for head of Likud and Prime Minister”.