Official Palestinian sources said that the Palestine Investment Fund is heading to a technical agreement with the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) to develop the "Gaza Marine" field.
The Palestine Investment Fund (the sovereign fund) is heading to a technical agreement with the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) to develop the "Gaza Marine" field.
Official Palestinian sources told Sunday that the two sides will sign, during the last quarter of 2022, the technical agreement that defines the distribution of shares to the partners and how to market gas.
The Palestine Investment Fund owns a 27.5% stake in the field, and the Consolidated Contractors Company "CCC" owns the same share, while the remaining 45% will be for the operating company.
The Palestinian sources avoided referring to Israel's role in the agreement, saying only that things are moving towards developing the field in agreement with all relevant parties (without mentioning them).
In February 2021, the Fund, CCC and EGAS signed an agreement to cooperate in efforts to develop the Gaza gas field and the necessary infrastructure to provide Palestine's natural gas needs.
According to the sources, "After the signing of the technical framework agreement, EGAS will start the practical steps for developing the field, in preparation for extracting gas in commercial quantities 30 months after the signing of the agreement."
The Palestinians own the first field that was discovered in the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the nineties of the last century, known as “Gaza Marine.” Gas has not been extracted from it until today, due to an Israeli rejection of Palestinian requests to exploit it.
The field is located 36 kilometers west of Gaza in the waters of the Mediterranean, and was developed in 2000 by the British Gas Company "British Gas", which exited from it in favor of Royal Dutch Shell, before it also left in 2018.
The reserves in the field are estimated at 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or 32 billion cubic meters, equivalent to a production capacity of 1.5 billion cubic meters annually for a period of 20 years.
Their number reached 50 New prisoners joined the hunger strike in the occupation prisons
Twenty Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons announced that they joined an open strike started by 30 prisoners 15 days ago, rejecting the administrative detention of detainees without filing any indictment.
On Sunday, the number of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli prisons rose to 50, after 20 prisoners joined an open strike started by 30 prisoners 15 days ago.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club (non-governmental) said in a statement that 20 prisoners joined the "open hunger strike, bringing the number of strikers to 50."
For the fifteenth consecutive day, 30 administrative detainees are continuing their open hunger strike "in refusal of the crime of administrative detention," according to the club.
He pointed out that the striking prisoners continued to boycott the Israeli courts of various degrees as a step in protest against their arrest.
In the city of Al-Bireh in the middle of the occupied West Bank, the permanent sit-in tent continues to receive solidarity with the striking prisoners and the prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid, who suffers from advanced stages of cancer.
The tent will set up institutions specialized in prisoners’ affairs, and its activities will be attended by prisoners’ families, human rights defenders, and representatives of civil and governmental institutions.
The prisoner, Abu Hamid, is from Al-Amari camp near Ramallah, and has been detained since 2002 and has been sentenced to life imprisonment 7 times and an additional 50 years, on charges of participating in the establishment of the "Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades" affiliated with the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) and carrying out operations against the Israeli army.
On September 25, 30 Palestinian prisoners belonging to the "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine" began an open-ended hunger strike to protest their administrative detention.
Administrative detention is a decision to imprison by an Israeli military order, alleging the existence of a “secret file” for the detainee without an indictment, and extends to six months, renewable several times.
According to the Prisoner's Club, about 800 Palestinians are administratively detained in Israel's prisons, out of about 4,650 prisoners in its prisons.