Israel has signed the largest export deal in its history—valued at an estimated $35 billion—just weeks after occupying the southern Gazan city of Rafah in violation of its agreement with Egypt. The record-breaking natural gas deal with Cairo underscores growing accusations that Israel is profiting from stolen regional resources while deepening its military occupation and tightening its siege on Palestinian life.
Announced today by Tel Aviv-based NewMed Energy, the deal will see 130 billion cubic meters (BCM) of gas exported from Israel’s massive Leviathan reservoir to Egypt over the next 15 years, a move that critics say entrenches Israel’s regional energy dominance at the direct expense of Palestinian sovereignty and international law.
“This is not just a gas deal,” said a Palestinian environmental rights activist based in Ramallah, who requested anonymity. “This is the economic face of apartheid—where natural resources are extracted from occupied and contested territory, enriching Israel while Palestinians remain locked out of the entire equation.”
■ A Deal Signed Under Occupation
The announcement comes at a time of extraordinary tension between Egypt and Israel. In May 2025, the Israeli military launched a full-scale ground invasion of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, violating a 2020 agreement with Egypt that prohibited Israeli boots from crossing into the Philadelphi Corridor bordering Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Despite repeated Egyptian condemnations and public statements about the sanctity of its border agreement, today’s deal with NewMed suggests that business has quietly continued behind the scenes.
“This is a scandal,” said Dr. Yara Asad, an energy policy analyst at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha. “Egypt is rewarding Israel economically even as it violates bilateral and international agreements. This tells us a lot about the shifting priorities of Arab regimes—and their complicity.”
■ Stolen Waters, Stolen Gas?
The Leviathan reservoir—discovered in 2010—is among the largest gas fields in the Mediterranean, and Israel’s control over it has long been contested. While it lies off Israel’s coast, rights groups have argued that Israel’s dominance over the eastern Mediterranean’s energy grid comes with systematic exclusion of Palestinians from any meaningful participation, particularly from the Gaza Marine gas field, located just 30 kilometers offshore.
Israel has blocked any development of Gaza’s own gas resources for over two decades, despite them being internationally recognized as Palestinian property. Instead, Israel now profits as both producer and regional exporter, often marketing itself as a pillar of energy “stability” in the eastern Mediterranean.
“This is economic occupation layered on top of military occupation,” said Dr. Shir Hever, an Israeli economist and author of The Privatisation of Israeli Security. “Palestinians are denied access to their own waters and natural resources, while Israel signs billion-dollar contracts with the same governments that claim to support the Palestinian cause.”
■ Egypt: The Silent Partner
Under the new agreement, signed with Blue Ocean Energy (BOE)—an existing Egyptian buyer—gas deliveries are expected to continue until 2040, replacing a 2019 deal worth approximately $15 billion that is set to expire in the early 2030s.
The contract includes two phases:
- Stage One: Delivery of 20 BCM starting in 2026.
- Stage Two: An additional 110 BCM, contingent on infrastructure upgrades and the completion of a new pipeline between Israel and Egypt via Nitzana.
The expanded production will raise Leviathan’s annual output to 21 BCM, significantly increasing Israeli exports, much of it routed through Egypt’s liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals for re-export to Europe.
The infrastructure expansion includes connecting Israel’s Ashkelon and el-‘Arīsh pipeline, itself a symbol of Egypt-Israel economic coordination that has depoliticized and monetized cross-border relations.
■ “Gas-Washing” and EU Complicity
The new pipeline and increased flow to Egypt come as Europe seeks alternatives to Russian gas. Egypt, in turn, positions itself as an energy hub—receiving gas from Israel, liquefying it, and shipping it to Europe as “Egyptian LNG.”
This process has been dubbed “gas-washing” by critics who say it helps greenwash Israel’s occupation economy.
“Europe knows where this gas is coming from,” said Lina Issa of the Energy Justice Coalition. “But they’d rather buy ‘Egyptian’ LNG than deal with the optics of buying directly from Israel while Gaza is being flattened.”
Indeed, while Egypt profits from being a regional middleman, Palestinians in Gaza live with less than 4 hours of electricity a day. Meanwhile, the gas-rich strip remains under an air, land, and sea blockade enforced by Israel and, crucially, Egypt.
■ International Law and the Hague Regulations
Under the Hague Regulations of 1907 and Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, an occupying power cannot exploit natural resources in occupied territories for its own benefit. While Leviathan lies off the coast of Israel proper, the larger geopolitical context—where Israel has denied Palestinians access to their own natural gas fields (Gaza Marine), restricted fishing zones, and blocked energy infrastructure—turns any unilateral export deal into a de facto act of economic exclusion.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have previously argued that Israel’s energy policy violates international legal norms by reinforcing apartheid structures.
“Palestinians have the right to develop their own energy sector,” stated a 2023 UN Special Rapporteur report. “Systematic denial of access to natural resources constitutes a form of structural violence and collective punishment.”
Enrichment Under Siege
This $35 billion deal is not merely an economic arrangement; it’s a window into a broader system of resource plunder, strategic alliances, and global complicity.
As Israel profits and Egypt expands its energy influence, Palestinians remain locked out of the economic benefits of their own land and sea. The deal solidifies a regional energy order built on apartheid, blockade, and selective partnerships.
And while Rafah lies in ruins and Gaza is starved of fuel, gas flows uninterrupted—just not for the people who live above it.
