The Gas Deal Between Egypt and the Jewish Entity Is an Acknowledgment of Occupation and a Plundering of the Ummah’s Wealth
(Translated)
Al-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 562 - 27/08/2025 CE
Ustadh Saeed Fadl *

On August 7, 2025, the Energy Minister of the Jewish entity, Eli Cohen, announced the signing of what he described as “the largest deal in Israel’s history” to export natural gas to Egypt, valued at $35 billion. The deal includes the sale of approximately 130 billion cubic meters of gas by 2040, or until the contractual quantities are met. NewMed Energy, a partner in the occupied Leviathan field, explained that the deal will be implemented in two phases: the first, beginning in 2026, with a quantity of 20 billion cubic meters, and the second, including 110 billion cubic meters, following the completion of infrastructure expansion and the construction of a new pipeline through the Nitzana crossing.

This announcement did not come out of nowhere. Instead, it is an extension of a previous agreement signed in 2019 between Egypt and the Jewish entity, which included the supply of 60 billion cubic meters of gas, of which more than a third has already been delivered. However, what is new today is that the deal has doubled, becoming the largest export deal in the history of the Jewish entity.

This deal is not merely trade between two states, as the official media portrays. Instead, it is an implicit acknowledgment of the occupation of Palestine by the Jews, and even financial and strategic support for the occupation. The expected gas export that the Jewish entity will come from fields located in the Mediterranean Sea, which it seized by force after occupying the land of Palestine. Therefore, whoever signs such deals is in fact practically acknowledging this occupation, granting it additional legitimacy through direct economic dealings, after having already enabled it with the recent border demarcation.

It is not free trade between two equal parties. Instead it is a relationship between an occupier of Muslim land and wealth and an authority in a neighboring country that hands him money in exchange for what he has looted! It is a form of economic normalization, no less dangerous than political or security normalization, and perhaps even more dangerous, because it ties the daily lives and livelihoods of the people to the hands of their enemy.

This deal comes at a time when Egypt is suffering from a severe energy crisis, as its gas production has dropped from more than 6 billion cubic feet per day in 2021, to about 3.5 billion cubic feet in 2025. In other words, the country, that only a few years ago was speaking of self-sufficiency in gas and the ability to export, has today become an importer of gas from its historical enemy!

Thus, the Jewish entity becomes a main energy supplier for Egypt, which means that Egypt’s decision in a strategic sector like energy is now dependent on the Jewish entity and on the prices and policies it imposes. This in itself places Egypt within the circle of political and economic dependency, and makes it part of the project to turn the Jewish entity into a regional energy hub in the Eastern Mediterranean.

What is happening is not merely gas trade. It is a redrawing of the map of influence in the region, where Egypt is being pushed to serve merely as a corridor, or intermediary, for exporting gas from the Jewish entity to Europe, through the liquefaction facilities in Idku and Damietta, while the Jewish entity becomes the primary supplier, reaps political and economic profits, and gains both time and legitimacy.

Gas, oil, and all major natural resources do not belong to the state, the ruler, or even the people as individuals. Instead, they are public properties belonging to all Muslims, as mentioned in the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (saw),

«الْمُسْلِمُونَ شُرَكَاءُ فِي ثَلَاثٍ: فِي الْمَاءِ، وَالْكَلَأِ، وَالنَّارِ»

“The Muslims are partners in three things: water, pasture, and fire.” Gas falls under the meaning of “fire,” i.e., energy, and is among the resources that Shariah Law has designated as public property for Muslims. It is not permissible for an individual, an entity, or even a state to monopolize or dispose of them in a way that violates the right of the Islamic Ummah.

Accordingly, signing such agreements with an entity that occupies land, in order to sell resources that in essence belong to the Ummah, is a double crime: it is both an acknowledgment of the occupation, and financial support for it. Moreover, it robs the Ummah of its right over its resources, which must be managed to serve its own interests, not sold cheaply to its enemy.

Islam has made it the Shariah obligation upon the state to safeguard these public properties, to be managed for the benefit of the entire Ummah, with their revenues spent on its essential needs education, healthcare, infrastructure, and Jihad, not turned into a source of wealth for the occupying enemy.

Such deals are invalid in Shariah Law from the very outset, because they are based on treating the Jewish entity as a legitimate state, while in reality it is an entity that occupied Muslim land and must be regarded as a hostile entity whose very existence is illegitimate, not merely a political adversary. They also squander the wealth of the Islamic Ummah by enabling its enemy to control it and by financing its economy through it. In addition, they drag the Ummah into a circle of dependency, making its essential needs hostage to the hands of its enemy.

Therefore, it is an obligation upon the Ummah to reject these agreements entirely and absolutely, and to work to reclaim both land and resources from the occupying enemy by military force, not by signing contracts of buying and selling. The resources of the Ummah must never be in the hands of the occupying entity to begin with. Instead, it is a Shariah obligation to liberate the land, along with its resources, and return them to the management of the Islamic State that rules by Islam.

Shariah has prohibited such deals because they constitute full recognition of the Jewish entity as a state, treating it as a neighbor and tying the country’s economy to it. Any dealings with this entity whether economic, political, or security-related are strictly forbidden in Islam, as they amount to recognizing its occupation of Muslim Land. Islam also forbids financing the occupation or giving it money, whether in exchange for gas or anything else, for that is direct funding of its occupation and aggression.

The duty is not to purchase gas from the Jewish entity, but to reclaim the fields it has occupied and return them to the collective ownership of the Ummah. What must be demanded is the establishment of a state that implements Islam, the Khilafah Rashidah (the Rightly-Guided Caliphate) on the Method of Prophethood which will manage these resources as public property of the Muslims, directing them to serve their interests, care for their affairs, and fund Jihad in the path of Allah ﷻ.

The gas deal between Egypt and the Jewish entity is not merely an economic transaction. It is an acknowledgment of occupation and support for the occupier. It is the plundering of the Ummah’s wealth and the squandering of its rights. It is a continuation of the policies of governments that tie the people’s interests, their food security, and their energy needs to their enemy, thereby shackling the Ummah economically and politically with the bonds of treachery and dependency.

The solution is not to improve the terms of these deals, or to seek temporary import alternatives, but to uproot the Jewish entity from its foundations and liberate all of Palestine, and establish the Khilafah (Caliphate) that manages the Ummah’s resources in a way that pleases Allah (swt), restores its sovereignty, and places its wealth in the service of its revival and Jihad, not in the service of its enemy.

The Ummah faces a clear choice: either to remain hostage to its enemy through such deals, or to rise up to overthrow the regimes that have surrendered its land and resources, and to establish the Islamic State that safeguards rights, liberates land, and restores the Ummah’s honor and dignity once again: a Khilafah Rashidah (Rightly-Guided Caliphate) upon the method of Prophethood. Allah (swt) said,

[وَلَا تَرْكَنُوا إِلَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا فَتَمَسَّكُمُ النَّارُ وَمَا لَكُم مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ مِنْ أَوْلِيَاءَ ثُمَّ لَا تُنصَرُونَ]

“And do not incline toward those who have wronged, lest the Fire touch you, and you would have no protectors other than Allah, nor would you be helped.” [TMQ Surah Hud 113].

* Member of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Egypt