The Palestinian Minister of Transport Sa’di Al-Krunz on Dec. 26 said that the Palestinian Authority would build an international airport near Jerusalem and a port in the Gaza Strip. Al-Krunz said that the airport would be built in the Al-Bqai’a area between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem. He added that 70 per cent of the land marked for the airport project belongs to the Jerusalem area and the remainder to the Bethlehem area. The project is estimated to cost $340 million. The minister added that the project would have a control tower, a terminal with six air bridges and a large parking lot. He said the airport would have a 3.2-km runway that would be good enough for large aircraft to land and take off.
Al-Krunz said the airport project had received the go-ahead from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and that the PA was seeking international funding. He said the PA would not seek the approval of the Israeli government for the project since the construction of an airport in the West Bank was included in the Oslo Accords. The minister said the PA would also build a port in the Gaza Strip. The port will be built on the shores of Sheikh Ijleen in the southern Gaza Strip. Al-Krunz said that France and the Netherlands had agreed to finance the project.