How Gaza's gas reserves fueled Israel's war ambitions

The deadly Gaza conflict is linked to Israel's longstanding battle for control over the region’s massive natural gas reserves. The untold story behind the war.

In his vlog, Kamran Khan said the discovery of 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas beneath Gaza’s coastline is at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

According to estimates, these reserves have a production value of around $500 billion, making Palestine one of the most resource-rich areas in the world.

“As global demand and prices for oil and gas increased, Gaza’s crisis deepened,” Khan said. “The latest war between Israel and Palestine was also fueled by the struggle to control these energy resources.”

Khan pointed out that the 15-month-long war left more than 46,600 Palestinians dead before a cease-fire was reached in January 2025.

He emphasized that energy politics has historically played a central role in global conflicts, from the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s to the Gulf War of the 1990s and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The Middle East and the Persian Gulf have been battlefields due to oil and gas disputes for decades,” he said, adding that similar conflicts over energy resources exist in Venezuela, Brazil, China, and Africa.

Energy as a driving force in war

Khan detailed how Israel made swift moves to capitalize on Gaza’s natural gas even as the war raged on. According to Middle East Monitor, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued 12 gas exploration licenses in October 2023, shortly after launching military operations in Gaza. The licenses were granted to six companies, including British Petroleum and the Italian firm Eni.

“This means the real motive behind Israel’s war was control over oil and gas reserves,” Khan said.

Historically, the U.S. geological surveys have repeatedly highlighted the immense natural gas potential off Gaza’s coast. Khan cited a report from Al Jazeera that stated the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called these reserves a “gift from God” when engineers first informed him about them.

In 1999, the Palestinian Authority signed an agreement with a British Gas-led consortium for gas exploration, granting Palestinians a share of the expected income. However, by 2002, Israel imposed conditions, demanding that any gas exceeding local Palestinian needs be sold to Israel at reduced prices. When negotiations stalled, Israel pressured the Palestinian Authority to cancel the agreement altogether.

A Reuters report states that the Gaza Marine gas field has the potential to meet Palestine’s energy needs for centuries. Yet, due to the ongoing conflict, security concerns, and political complexities, the reserves have remained untapped for 25 years.

Israel’s growing gas exports

While Palestinians have been blocked from accessing their energy wealth, Israel has been expanding its own gas production.

Khan highlighted that Israel began extracting gas from the Leviathan field near Gaza in 2019 and signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Union in June 2022 to export gas from the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, countries like Egypt and Cyprus have been exporting gas from the same region for years, leaving Palestinians out of the equation.

“Despite having eight major gas fields under international law, Palestinians are not allowed to use them,” Khan said. “Due to Israel’s influence in global politics, there is no telling how many more years the Palestinian people will be deprived of their own natural resources.”

Khan concluded by stressing that the world’s geopolitical and economic stability continues to revolve around natural resources, with wars and conflicts erupting wherever energy wealth is at stake. For Gaza, he said, this reality has meant nearly a century of struggle, with no clear end in sight.