How Are Egyptian Ports Helping Israeli Economy Survive War?

In the meantime, after several reports were published in the past months about the secret assistance of Arab countries such as the UAE, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia to the Israelis to bypass the Red Sea through land corridors, now there are also reports of Cairo playing a similar role in this treasonous anti-Palestinian case. 

According to Arabi Post, maritime tracking data of ships in Israeli and Egyptian ports show that Egyptian sea ports have become the main destination of many cargo ships whose mission is mainly to periodically transport cargo to and from the occupied territories during the war on Gaza.

The result of this report has been obtained by examining the sailing routes of at least 19 cargo ships between the ports of Egypt and Israel during a limited period of time, which were engaged in the transfer of goods between the two sides.

This cycle of movement between the ports of the two sides has been repeated during the period of data collection, except for very few short sails made to ports of third countries such as Cyprus.

The data are related to 7 ports, including two Israeli ports (Haifa and Ashdod) and 5 Egyptian ports (Alexandria, Al-Arish, Abu Qir, Dakhila and Damita), all of which overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

Also, the tracking period of ships' activity was limited to the last three months (June, July and until August 22, 2024).

It is noteworthy that Egyptian ports are of vital importance for the transportation of goods to Israel during the war due to their proximity to the main ports of the Israeli regime, especially the port of Ashdod, which is about 29 km away from Gaza, as well as the strategic port of Haifa. This geographical proximity has essentially cut the cost of transporting goods to Israel compared to other routes.

These 19 ships consisted of 7 cargo ships for transporting container goods, 6 ships for transporting cement, 5 general cargo ships and 1 ship for transporting bulk cargo for non-packaged goods such as grain, sugar and coal.

These ships have made dozens of sails to carry cargo between Egyptian and Israeli ports during the Gaza war.

These ships are sailing under the flags of Panama, Liberia, Israel, Egypt, Antigua and Barbuda, Singapore and Saint Kitts and Nevis and owned by companies registered in Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Singapore, Germany and Cyprus. 

This includes the LUCY BORCHARD ship, which visited Israeli ports 25 times and Egyptian ports 23 times in 2023, and visited Israeli ports 24 times and Egyptian ports 24 times in 2022.

In 2023, the Pan GG container ship carried cargo to Ashdod port 28 times and to Haifa port 4 times, and in 2022, 41 times to Ashdod port. This ship belongs to the Egyptian "Pan Marine" shipping group, which was established in 1978. 

Egypt-Israel trade increase during Gaza war 

The Egyptian officials' ignorance of effect of circumventing the anti-Israeli blockade, including helping Israel to continue war and massacare more Palestinians, bears economic benefits to Cairo. 

According to official Israeli data, during the Gaza war, the Egyptian trade with the occupied territories has increased compared to the time before war. 

According to statistics, the value of Egypt's exports to the occupied territories in the period from October 2023 to July 31, 2024 amounted to $170.1 million, while it was $162.8 million in the same period of the previous year (2022 and 2023).

Egyptians have also imported goods worth $331.6 million from Israel, two times more than the same period last year. 

This growth has been such that in July, Israel recorded the highest one-month export to Egypt worth $45.4 million.

As it was said, this sudden increase in the volume of trade between Cairo and Tel Aviv takes place in parallel with the continuation of the war against Gaza and the full-scale economic blockade against this strip by the Israelis, which led to massive destruction and deadly famine with 133,000 people dead and injured and more than 10,000 missing. This simultaneity fuels the speculation of Cairo's help in easing the economic blockade on Israel contrary to the rhetoric of help to Palestine.

Secret game of the UAE 

However, when we talk about the role of the Egyptian ports in mitigating the pressure on the Israeli economy, we can never ignore the role of a behind-the-scenes actor: The UAE. 

As it was mentioned, over the past 10 months of war, Abu Dhabi has been the most important partner of the Israelis to create a lifeline. 

In February, Israeli Channel 13 published a report on launching a land corridor that connects Jebel Ali in the UAE to Eilat port of Israel. Crossing Saudi Arabia and Jordan, this land route helped set up an alternative for Israeli marine trade in the Red Sea.

On February 2, Bloomberg reported that an Israeli startup was working on charting new business routes in the Middle East due to unrest in the Red Sea. Hanan Friedman, CEO of the company, said that they transport goods such as food, plastics, chemicals and electrical goods from the ports of the UAE and Bahrain via Saudi Arabia and Jordan to Israel. 

Also, Abu Dhabi has recently approved $10 billion for direct investment in the occupied territories to help the Israeli economy deal with crisis. Within the framework of this deal, the UAE has started a partnership between the G42 AI technology company chaired by Tehnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the national security advisor of the UAE, and the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems arms company owned by the Israeli regime. 

In the connection of the Egyptian-Israeli ports, we can track the Emiratis that in recent years have become the key investors in the Egyptian maritime and ports sector. 

Muwaten.net news website has published a report similar to that of Arabi Post, saying that Trucknet as an Israeli company based in Eiat with branches in Tel Aviv, France, Romania, and Spain has recently partnered with three companies in three Arab countries. These companies include PureTrans based in the UAE, Cox Logistics based in Bahrain, and WECS based in Egypt, all responsible for land transfer of goods from Jebel Ali and Salman in UAE and Bahrain to Eilat. 

In April, the UAE announced the investment of $35 billion in various economic sectors of Egypt, including the ports and islands. Before that, in February, the Egyptian media reported sale of Ras el-Hikmah port of Egypt on the Mediterranean coast to the UAE for $22 billion. These deals have increased Emirati influence and consequently power of decision making in the operation of Egyptian ports, to an extent that it can be said that the UAE investment in Egypt is influential in the process of the Gaza geopolitical crisis.