A Dubai 'palm tree' off the coast of Gaza? What are the Israelis thinking? It's being sold as an economic opportunity but the main aim seems to be to try to further detach the people of Gaza from Palestine with all border crossings through Israel to be permanently sealed - in other words to get Gazans to look west and not east to the lost land of Palestine, and of course families on the West Bank and Gaza would be even more separated. Also, there's the little matter of Gaza's offshore gas reserves -Israel builds an 'open' port and takes the gas in return. Whatever the motives it is difficult to see this plan getting off the ground. No one seems to have bothered to ask people in Gaza what they think either. Israel has been developing a secret plan over the past several months to build an eight square kilometers artificial island, 4.5 kilometers off the Gaza Strip coastline, which would be connected to the shore by a bridge, a source closed to the Israeli gove
Until now, the besieged Gaza Strip has stayed free of the novel coronavirus spreading across the world. As the Gaza Strip has been under a stringent Israeli-led blockade for nearly 13 years, the spread of the coronavirus - officially known as COVID-19 - has become the topic of discussion for many Palestinians, with some joking that the blockade was preventing them from being exposed.But as authorities in the coastal Palestinian enclave gear up to contain any potential outbreak, serious questions have arisen about the risks and implications of such a scenario. But given its already difficult humanitarian situation and high population density, an outbreak in the Gaza Strip could prove to be catastrophic, health officials have warned. "If the virus enters Gaza and spreads, it will get out of hand," Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Majdi Thuhair told Middle East Eye, as he explained that a severe shortage of resources and personnel would make it near impossible