By Dan Steinbock / Informed Comment
New York (Special to Informed Comment) – In December 2022, Israeli Ministry of Energy launched the Fourth Offshore Bid Round offering new exploration licenses. A year later, it awarded licenses to several Israeli and international companies: Eni (Italy), Dana Petroleum (UK, a subsidiary of a South Korean company, and Ratio Petroleum (Israel).
The problem is that these tenders violated international law.
Illegal offshore tenders amid huge onshore destruction
A few months later in June 2023, following years of stalled talks, Israel approved the development of the Gaza Marine field, while Egypt’s state-owned EGAS (Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company) was to lead extraction efforts in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority. Nonetheless, Israel stipulated that Hamas must not benefit financially.
Ironically, PM Netanyahu had for years ensured, as part of his Gaza strategy, that Hamas can receive multi-million-dollar shipments, via intermediation. The double-faced ploy used Hamas to disrupt the Palestinian Authority (PA), to keep Gaza weak and ultimately to reap the gas benefits to Israel.
As a net effect, active gas exploration or production could not commence due to the ongoing tensions in and around the Strip, which undermined investment and infrastructure development. The resulting stalemate status quo harmed Egypt’s mediation and interest in fostering regional energy stability.
As Israel initiated its ground assault in Gaza a week after October 7, 2023, Energy Minister Israel Katz pledged on X “all the civilian population in Aza [Gaza’s Hebraized name] is ordered to leave immediately. We will win. They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave the world.”
But Netanyahu’s veteran Likud ally had another, equally destructive role. Katz’s Ministry awarded the exploration licenses to the companies on October 29, 2023, violating international law. It was just two days after the lethal fury of the full-scale invasion in Gaza of the Israeli military.
Palestinian rights groups protest licenses
Due to his actions, Katz contributed deliberately and directly to Palestinian genocide in Gaza and could be charged in the ICJ genocide case, together with Prime Minister Netanyahu and ex-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Katz contributed to and was directly responsible for the weaponized famines that facilitated the genocide.
By early 2024, almost in parallel with the South African genocide case against Israel, the Israeli Energy Ministry’s decision was protested by several Palestinian human rights groups.
Based in Haifa and Beersheba, Adalah demanded Israel revoke the tenders which violate international law. In turn, Al Mezan, Al-Haq, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) appealed to licensed companies to refrain from participating in acts of pillage of the sovereign natural resources of the Palestinian people.
A law firm representing these groups sent a warning letter to the Italian state-owned firm ENI that it should not exploit the gas fields in an area called Zone G. They said that roughly 62% of the zone lies in maritime areas claimed by Palestine. Consequently, “Israel cannot have validly awarded you any exploration rights and you cannot validly have acquired any such rights”.
For half a year, these appeals were effectively ignored by Israel and the United States, its primary military supplier and financier. Things changed in August 2025, when the PCHR released a report concluding that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza.
Positioning for gas exploration bonanza
As ceasefire talks intensified and property tycoons like Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff began to dominate negotiations using Tony Blair as the public façade, U.S. State Department sanctioned three Palestinian human rights NGOs for having “directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio added that “the United States will continue to respond with significant and tangible consequences to protect our troops, our sovereignty, and our allies from the ICC’s disregard for sovereignty, and to punish entities that are complicit in its overreach.”
Previously, the Trump administration had sanctioned the ICC in response to its investigation and arrest warrants for PM Netanyahu and his former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza….
https://scheerpost.com/2025/10/18/whitewashing-gas-exploration-in-post-genocide-gaza
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After the truth-shower 