Yasser Arafat International Airport ( ''Maṭār Yāsir 'Arafāt ad-Dawli'') was an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

. It was located between

Rafah Rafah ( ) is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza C ...

and Dahaniya, close to the

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian border. The facility was built as a result of the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the st ...

and opened on 24 November 1998 as Gaza International Airport. It served as the base of Palestinian Airlines. The airport ceased operations in 2001 during 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 ...

. It was renamed in honour of Palestinian leader

Yasser Arafat Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...

following his death in 2004. The Gaza airport was progressively destroyed by

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 ...

during the intifada and later conflicts and by looting.

History

In the

, Israel and the Palestinians agreed to build airports in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

and

. However, the agreements did not contain specifics, such as when the airports would be constructed or how large they would be. The Palestinians began work on a large airport in southern Gaza, which contrasted with the Israelis' expectation of a small facility suited for local flights. It was built with funding from Egypt,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and was designed by Moroccan architects. The total cost was million. An impasse in the peace negotiations delayed the airport's opening by over a year. In the Wye River Memorandum, Israel permitted operations to begin. The airport was named Gaza International Airport and opened on 24 November 1998; Palestinian leader

presided over the inauguration ceremony. Palestinian Airlines relocated to Gaza from El Arish, Egypt, and operated the first commercial flight to

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

on 5 December. On 14 December, US president

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

landed at the airport and took part in a ribbon cutting. At the time, the opening of the airport was described as evidence of progress toward Palestinian statehood and of collaboration between Israelis and Palestinians. The airport was operated by the Palestinian Civil Aviation Authority. Passengers underwent security screening by Israeli soldiers at the Rafah crossing; then they took a bus to the terminal to catch their flight. Work commenced on another terminal called the south wing in 2000. Japan funded the project. The Israelis and Palestinians planned to manage security jointly in the terminal so there would be less of a need for travellers to go to the Rafah crossing. In 1999, the airport received 90,000 passengers and more than 100 tons of cargo. As of May 2000, Palestinian Airlines linked Gaza to six cities in the region, such as Dubai and Larnaca. In addition, a handful of foreign carriers, including

Royal Air Maroc Royal Air Maroc (RAM, ; ; ) is the Morocco, Moroccan national carrier, as well as the country largest airline, ranking among the largest in Africa. RAM is wholly owned by the Cabinet of Morocco, Moroccan Government, and has its headquarters o ...

and

Air Sinai Air Sinai ( ') was an airline based in Cairo, Egypt. It operated as a 'paper airline' for parent company Egyptair under a wet lease-like agreement to serve flights exclusively between Egypt and Israel. History The Egypt–Israel peace treaty ...

, served the airport.

Second Intifada

The

broke out in September 2000, and the airport saw its last flight depart in 2001. The Israeli military bombed the radar station and bulldozed the runway in December 2001. It broke up the runway again the following month. Israel feared that the Palestinians would use the airport to smuggle in weapons and militants. In March 2002, the

International Civil Aviation Organization The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international sch ...

rebuked Israel for the attack on the airport. By 2005, the facility had been renamed after Arafat, who died the year prior. Airport personnel still staffed the ticket counters and baggage areas, hoping to deter looting and further Israeli attacks. Construction of the south wing continued slowly. In November 2005, after the Sharm El Sheikh Summit and Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Israel and the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

signed the

Agreement on Movement and Access The Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA) was an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) signed on 15 November 2005 aimed at improving Palestinian freedom of movement and economic activity within the Palestinian territorie ...

, in which they agreed to discuss reopening the airport.

Hamas rule in Gaza Strip

The pact became moot once the political organisation

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

gained power in the Gaza Strip. In 2006, it won the Palestinian legislative election and kidnapped an Israeli soldier. The abduction sparked a

conflict Conflict may refer to: Social sciences * Conflict (process), the general pattern of groups dealing with disparate ideas * Conflict continuum from cooperation (low intensity), to contest, to higher intensity (violence and war) * Conflict of ...

during which Israel bombed the airport. Buildings like the south wing, which was nearing completion, were damaged. Hamas took over the Gaza Strip the following year, and the Israelis continued to shell the airport during wars with the group. During the 2006 conflict, Palestinian officials stopped protecting the airport. People stole equipment from the site. They also chipped away the runway and terminal to obtain rubble; the

Israeli blockade of Gaza 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 goods ...

had resulted in a shortage of building materials.

Infrastructure

The total area of the airport was . The passenger terminal was able to handle 700,000 passengers per year and was decorated with stone mosaics and Islamic paintings. There was also a VIP lounge, which had a golden dome modeled after the

Dome of the Rock The Dome of the Rock () is an Islamic shrine at the center of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount in the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City of Jerusalem. It is the world's oldest surviving work of Islamic architecture, the List_of_the_ol ...

and a suite for Arafat. The asphalt

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

was designated 01/19 and measured .

Gallery

Image:Gaza airport 03.jpg, Damaged building, May 2002 Image:Gaza Airport 2.jpg, Ruins of Yasser Arafat International Airport Gaza International Airport NASA.JPG, 2008 satellite photo of the runway Gaza AirPort , Gaza , 2-1-2011 (47).jpg, Ruins of airport VIP lounge with gold dome File:UNRWA Summer Game July 2010 (9).jpg, Airport tarmack being used for the

UNRWA The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA, pronounced ) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fl ...

Summer Games in 2010

References

;General * * * ;Specific

External links

* * {{Authority control 1998 establishments in Palestine 2000 disestablishments in Palestine Airports established in 1998 Airports disestablished in 2000 Airports in the Gaza Strip Buildings and structures in the Gaza Strip Defunct airports in Palestine Rafah Governorate