Yasser Arafat International Airport (Arabic: مطار ياسر عرفات الدوليMaṭār Yāsir 'Arafāt ad-Dawli) (IATA: GZA, ICAO: LVGZ),[1] formerly Gaza International Airport and Dahaniya International Airport, was located in the Gaza Strip, between Rafah and Dahaniya, close to the Egyptian border. The facility opened on 24 November 1998, and all passenger flights ceased in February 2001, during the Second Intifada. Israel bombed the radar station and control tower on 4 December 2001 and bulldozers cut the runway on 10 January 2002, rendering the airport inoperable.
History
The airport was operated by the Palestinian Civil Aviation Authority and Israeli government. It was able to handle 700,000 passengers per year, and its total area was 450 hectares (1,100 acres). The airfield served as the base of Palestinian Airlines until it was closed to passenger traffic.[2][3]
The construction of the airport was provided for in the Oslo II Agreement of 1995. It was built with funding from Japan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Germany. It was designed by Moroccan architects (modeled after Casablanca airport) and engineers funded by Morocco's King Hassan II. The total cost was $86 million and it was built by Usama Hassan Elkhoudary (El-Khoudary for engineering and contracting). After a year of construction, it opened on 24 November 1998; attendees at the opening ceremony included Yasser Arafat and US President Bill Clinton. At the time, the opening of the airport was described as evidence of progress toward Palestinian statehood.[4][5] The presence of Israelis was restricted to checking passports and bags.[6]
The first commercial flight to depart from the Gaza airport was a Palestinian Airlines flight to Amman on 5 December 1998.[7] Over the following year, the airport received 90,000 passengers and processed more than 100 tons of cargo. By mid-2000, a handful of foreign carriers, including Royal Air Maroc and Egyptair, had introduced flights to Gaza as well.[8]
Second Intifada
The Second Intifada broke out in September 2000, leading to the closure of the airport the following month.[9] Israel alternated between reopening and shutting down the airport over the next several months before finally prohibiting all commercial air traffic on 13 February 2001; from then on, only Arafat's private aircraft were allowed to use the airfield.[10][11] Airstrikes destroyed the radar station and control tower on 4 December 2001 and bulldozers cut the runway on 10 January 2002.[12][13][14] Its destruction left Gush Katif Airport as the only serviceable runway in Gaza, until it was abandoned in 2004. The closest public airports in the area are Ben Gurion Airport in Israel and El Arish Airport in Egypt. From 2001 to 2006, airport personnel still staffed the ticket counters and baggage areas,[14] though no aircraft flew into or out of the airport during that period.
