Off the coast of Palestine sits half a billion dollars worth of natural gas, a fossil fuel craved by nations worldwide. This includes 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Leviathan gas field which can power Israel for 40 years. Now, why is this important, and how does it impact Palestine, Israel and the world?
With Israel known to be a net importer of energy, meaning that it depends on other countries for its fossil fuels, it has its eye set on natural gas. Since 1991, Israel has been deliberately sabotaging Palestine’s attempts at making deals to extract and export the fossil fuel. The unique commodity can also be considered a major driving force behind Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land.
On the other side of the coin is Europe which is struggling to gain access to natural gas because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Russia used to be a major gas exporter for the EU as before the Ukraine invasion, Russia sent around 155 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas to Europe each year. Today, the amount is expected to fall to 20 bcm meaning that the EU is going to be looking for a new source of gas.
Back in 2022, the EU signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel and Egypt to import some of the natural gas that has been found off the coast of Palestine. This could be why Europe is inadvertently supporting Israel.
Along with Israel and the EU, the US is yet another nation that will gain major benefits from Gaza’s natural gas. They are known to be the biggest producer and exporter of liquid natural gas meaning that they want other nations to depend on gas over oil. Palestine’s off-coast natural gas may just be the needed push.
It is unknown what is expected to happen with the natural gas and whether Israel will end up exporting it but what can be understood is how the gas may be a cause for many of the inexplicable tragedies happening today.