Israeli media have reported that Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have discussed building an artificial island along the Gaza Strip.

The proposed plan is reportedly estimated at US$ 9.94 billion.

Israel’s transport minister, Yisrael Katz, says the plan had been under consideration for many months and had been encouraged by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has approved the cost of construction, the daily Guardian quoted Israeli media as reporting on Wednesday.

The Gaza Strip has no sea port and its airport was destroyed by the Israeli bombardments.

Tel Aviv has asked Acting PA chief, Mahmoud Abbas, to administer the island.

The project seeks to isolate Palestinian Resistance Movement, Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. The coastal area has been effectively cut off from the West Bank run by Mahmoud Abbas.

And the Gaza Strip itself has been under an all-out land, aerial and naval Israeli blockade since 2007, when Hamas, the democratically elected ruler of Gaza, took control of the coastal sliver.

Meanwhile, environmentalists and Palestinian officials have described the venture as “fantasy” and “madness,” and accused the minister of political opportunism.

(Press TV)