Palestinian energy officials have blasted Israel for the looting of Gaza’s natural resources, saying the reserves legally belong to Palestinians.

Earlier this week, American crude oil and gas exploration giant, Noble Energy, obtained permission from Israeli officials to begin developing a natural gas field off the Gaza Strip coastline, a Press TV report said Tuesday.

Israeli regime’s ministry of national infrastructure has claimed the shortage of natural gas supplies was the main reason behind granting approval to the US corporation to develop the field.

This is while Tel Aviv has for some years used rich oil and gas reserves that sit off the northeast tip of the Gaza sliver, which were once parts of the Palestinian territory.

In year 2000, British Gas (BG) drilled two wells in the region, named as Gaza Marine-1 and Gaza Marine-2.

The value of the wells is estimated to be USD 4 billion.

“This is nothing but theft of Palestinian’s natural resources. Palestinians are the only ones who should benefit from natural gas reserves,” Kanan Obeid, a Gaza Energy authority said.

Moreover, UN resolution 3005 has clearly stated that natural wealth and resources of the Gaza Strip fall under the control of residents of the occupied territories.

Consequently, analysts blame the international community for an outright negligence in failing to uphold the rights of the Palestinians.

“I think this comes in line with Israel consistent policy of stealing Palestinian’s land, stealing natural resources and I think that Israel knows very well that it can get away with murder due to international conspiracy of silence,” Haidar Eid, a political analyst said.

(Press TV)