The Port of Gaza is a small port near the

Rimal Rimal or Remal () is a neighborhood in Gaza City located from the city center. Situated along the coastline, it was considered the most prosperous neighborhood of Gaza.Jacobs, 1998, p.455. The main street that runs through Gaza, Omar Mukhtar ...

district of

Gaza City Gaza City, also called Gaza, is a city in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Gaza Governorate. Located on the Mediterranean coast, southwest of Jerusalem, it was home to Port of Gaza, Palestine's only port. With a population of ...

, Gaza. It is the home port of Palestinian fishing-boats and the base of the

Palestinian Naval Police The Palestinian Naval Police, also known as the (), is a branch of the Palestinian National Security Forces whose task includes securing the coastline of the Gaza Strip. The Naval Police was established in the Gaza–Jericho Agreement signe ...

, a branch of the

Palestinian National Security Forces The Palestinian National Security Forces (NSF; ) are the paramilitary security forces of the Palestinian National Authority. The name may either refer to all National Security Forces, including some special services but not including the Inter ...

. Under the

Oslo II Accord The Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, commonly known as Oslo II or Oslo 2, was a key and complex agreement in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. Because it was signed in Taba, Egypt, it is sometimes called the Taba Agre ...

, the activities of the Palestinian Naval Police are restricted to 6 nautical miles from the coast. Since 2007, the Port of Gaza has been under an Israeli-imposed

naval blockade A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations ...

as part of a

blockade of the Gaza Strip The restrictions on movement and goods in Gaza imposed by Israel date to the early 1990s. After Hamas took over in 2007, Israel significantly intensified existing movement restrictions and imposed a complete blockade on the movement of good ...

, and activities at the port have been restricted to small-scale fishing.

History

Gaza Strip

The Gaza Strip has been put under a strict blockade, by land, air, and sea. Having total surface area of 362 square kilometers, the transportation system in the strip is in poor condition with only of main roads, of regional roads, and of local roads. Formerly the Gaza strip had a small airport located at Rafah, but the airport was destroyed in 2001 by Israel. The port was built by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

Maiuma

In earlier times, the port of Maiuma, or ''el Mineh'' (Arabic for "the harbour"), was located in the area. In the late Ottoman era,

Pierre Jacotin Pierre Jacotin (1765–1827) was the director of the Surveying, survey for the ''Carte de l'Égypte (Description de l'Égypte)'', the first triangulation-based map of Egypt, Syria and Palestine. The maps were drafted in 1799–1800 during Napole ...

named the place ''Majumas'' on his map from 1799. In 1883, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) noted that ''el Mineh'' was probably the ancient Maiuma. In 2011, eight Roman columns believed to be the remains of a church were swept ashore during a storm. In 2013, the Palestinian Naval Police found ancient artifacts that included poles and baked clay.Gaza naval police excavate archaeological site off the Gaza coast
February 17, 2014, Memo

Since 1994

In 2002, Israeli forces attacked the Palestinian Naval Police facilities in the port, after Naval Police commanders were implicated in the

Karine A affair The ''Karine A'' affair, also known as Operation "Noah's Ark" (), was an Israeli military action in January 2002 in which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) forces seized MV ''Karine A'', which, according to the IDF, was a Palestinian freig ...

, an attempt to secretly bring in 50 tons of weapons by boat into Gaza. In 2007, following

Hamas' takeover of Gaza The Battle of Gaza, also known as the Gaza civil war, was a brief civil war between Fatah and Hamas that took place in the Gaza Strip from 10 to 15 June 2007. It was a prominent event in the Fatah–Hamas conflict, centered on the struggle f ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

imposed a

, including a naval blockade. Several attempts to break the Israeli blockade have been made. Israel has prevented most ships from docking at the Port of Gaza, but did allow two boats, carrying activists and some supplies, to reach the port in 2008. As at 2010, the port was restricted to smaller Palestinian fishing boats. In 2010, the port was deepened by Hamas in preparation for the arrival of a blockade-breaking flotilla of larger international ships.Gaza port readies for flotilla
May 27, 2010,

Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Je ...

Gaza war

The port and more than 90% of docked vessels were destroyed by Israel during the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

; the damage included targeted aerial strikes on fishing vessels and maritime artillery impacts.

Gaza Seaport plans

Since the 1993

Oslo I Accord The Oslo I Accord or Oslo I, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements or short Declaration of Principles (DOP), was an attempt in 1993 to set up a framework that would lead to the resolution of th ...

, there have been plans to build a much larger seaport in Gaza. Due to the continued

Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about Territory, land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation ...

, these plans have not materialized as of 2024. In 2005, Israel approved Palestinian plans to rebuild and complete the construction of a port a few miles south of Gaza City, which had begun before the outbreak of the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...

in September 2000. The building was destroyed by Israeli forces together with Gaza's existing airport near Rafah following the outbreak of the Second Intifada.

U.S.-installed floating pier

In 2024, the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

and

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

began constructing a floating pier at the Port of Gaza to bring in food to the people of the Gaza Strip. The pier was actually built in next door Israel and moved to Gaza. The United States and other countries also built an offshore platform a kilometre away from this pier. The aid was moved from the platform to this pier. On 20 May, the pier was damaged due to rains and wind. In July 2024, the pier was permanently dismantled.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

''Photos of the Port and the Sea of Gaza on Facebook''
* Survey of Western Palestine, Map 19
IAAWikimedia commons
{{coord, 31, 31, 30.77, N, 34, 25, 51.84, E, display=title Buildings and structures in the Gaza Strip Ports and harbours of the Mediterranean Nabataea History of the Arabian Peninsula History of Palestine (region) Ports and harbours of Palestine Rimal