Israel has signed its largest-ever export agreement to send natural gas to Egypt despite calls worldwide to boycott the occupying regime over its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
Under the deal, Leviathan natural gas field, located in the Mediterranean Sea, will export up to $35 billion worth of natural gas to Egypt, Israeli NewMed Energy LP, one of the partners in the reservoir, said in a statement on Thursday.
It added that agreement will see Leviathan selling about 130 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Egypt through 2040, or until all of the contract quantities are fulfilled.
The projects will start with 20 billion in the first half of 2026 after the connection of additional pipelines, and increase to 110 billion once an expansion project is completed.
Since 2020, Leviathan has been providing gas to Egypt under a contract for around 60 billion cubic meters, which is expected to be supplied by the early 2030s. To date, 23.5 bcm has been delivered.
“We’ll increase the flow to Egypt practically early next year, from the [annual] 4.5 bcm to 6.5 bcm. Then once we finish in 2029 the second phase of Leviathan, we will increase that to 12 bcm a year,” NewMed CEO Yossi Abu said.
The gas deal was signed at a time, when calls are intensifying across the world to end trade and financial ties with Israel due to its ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Since the start of the brutal Gaza onslaught, Cairo has repeatedly condemned Israeli war crimes against Palestinians, but maintained and even increased its economic relations with Tel Aviv.
Israel unleashed its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
The Tel Aviv regime has so far failed to achieve its declared objectives of eliminating Hamas and freeing all captives in Gaza, despite killing 61,258 Palestinians, mostly women, and children, and injuring 152,045 others.
A mass starvation is also gripping Gaza due to Israel’s blockade of the territory.