Gush Katif Airport was a small airfield in the
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
approximately north of the town of
Khan Yunis
Khan Yunis ( ar, خان يونس, also spelled Khan Younis or Khan Yunus; translation: ''Caravansary fJonah'') is a city in the southern Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Khan Yunis had a population of 142,6 ...
, and adjacent to the
UNRWA
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians displaced by the 1948 ...
Khan Younis refugee camp. It was immediately west of the former
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i settlement of
Ganei Tal, and named after the former Israeli settlement area of
Gush Katif. Following the destruction of the
Yasser Arafat International Airport
Yasser Arafat International Airport ( ar, مطار ياسر عرفات الدولي ''Maṭār Yāsir 'Arafāt ad-Dawli'') , formerly Gaza International Airport and Dahaniya International Airport, is located in the Gaza Strip, between Rafah an ...
it was briefly the only usable runway in the Gaza Strip, but in 2004 it was abandoned, and was overbuilt by 2015.
History
The airstrip should not be confused with
RAF Gaza, which was in the vicinity of the present day
Karni Crossing
The Karni Crossing ( ar, معبر كارني or معبر المنطار, he, מעבר קרני) was a cargo terminal on the Israel-Gaza Strip barrier located in the north-eastern end of the Gaza Strip and was opened in 1994 to allow Palestin ...
.
After the
1948 Palestinian exodus, 35,000 refugees took shelter in a camp to the south of the present day airfield. This has become the UNRWA Khan Younis camp.
As part of the
unilateral disengagement of Israel from Gaza, Israeli settlers were evicted from the
Gush Katif area in 2005.
In 2004, the airfield was in a good state of repair. The runway was kept clear, and
runway markings were maintained. Following the handover to the Palestinian authorities along with the rest of Gush Katif, the airstrip was no longer maintained. It became partially covered by sand and reduced from a width of to approximately of usable tarmac, and the overrun and backtracking loop at the northwest end became blocked with sand.
Present day
The
UNRWA
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians displaced by the 1948 ...
Khan Younis refugee camp is adjacent to and south of the former airstrip, and the UNRWA Khan Younis Vocational Training Centre, built in 2007, is immediately south of the runway. The camp houses over 68,000 refugees.
[http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=81 UNRWA - Khan Younis refugee camp]
In 2010 the main runway was still sufficiently clear to be used, due to its use as an access road for UNRWA Khan Younis.
By 2014, it was clear from aerial imagery that expansion of UNRWA Khan Younis, including a sewage treatment plant constructed on the former runway threshold, made it entirely unusable.
References
{{authority control
Defunct airports
Airports in the Gaza Strip
Buildings and structures in Khan Yunis