Potential progress in the Palestinian gas issue

It seems something is cooking in Cairo. Yesterday, the Palestinian PM was in a two day trip to meet his Egyptian counterpart and discuss the deepening of ties. Particularly, the meeting discussed the issue of connecting electricity from Egypt to the Gaza Strip to raise its efficiency and capacity, the progress of the Gaza reconstruction process, and the need for an Egyptian role in the process of establishing donor-funded water desalination plants, in addition to the issue related to activating Palestinian mobile phone networks in Egypt. In the meeting, the PM also discussed replacing Israeli products in the Palestinian market with Egyptian and Arab products.

In parallel, the head of Hamas was also invited to Cairo to discuss issues related to the reconstruction process and national reconciliation.

The steps suggest some progress has been made in the Palestinian Mediterranean gas issue and Egypt is going to play a wider role. Last week, leaks, which were later denied, said that Egypt was going to establish a maritime route with Gaza. It remains to be seen whether Israel will be on board with the Egyptian steps.