I sincerely hope in the writing of this series that the people of the Middle East and the world in general will open up their hearts and understand the deep suffering of the people of Palestine and the terrible aftermath that exists in Gaza today and to some extent the West Bank.

This story reveals my own attempt to sail to Gaza that failed due to many reasons, and the internal pain I experienced when my hopes were dashed. In not going to Gaza, it deprived me of my mission to brief the local government, its people, and more importantly, to save lives. I carried an array of extremely sensitive documents that at times caused me to continuously look over my shoulder and led to a most unusual meeting that revealed the workings of the intelligence service. My previous experience at NATO headquarters had prepared me for such encounters.  

It is our duty of care to stop this madness and it is the responsibility of the Arab League to support their brothers. We must all truly hang our heads in shame in allowing this to escalate to the level it has become today, and say to ourselves do we really know how we have all contributed in its demise? Do we fully understand that by our actions Gaza has a very bleak future despite its enormous wealth in offshore natural resources?

Gaza has been dealt a card from the bottom of the pack and despite the current trend some hope has to be given back to them to ease their pain. Firstly, we have to reveal the truth as to how their lives have been changed forever, what current dangers exist, how we must all work towards helping them to overcome the many terrible issues that exist, save many more lives or at least ease the inevitable suffering as a direct result of the contamination by Israeli weapons. 

After many month of research into the background of Palestine’s struggle for independence, I decided to focus on many of the underlying issues that contributed to the demise of this once proud people and the disproportional attack on the Gaza Strip. My in-depth research revealed a chain of events that would encapsulate this small enclave into what can only be described as the world’s largest open prison. Its people would not only incur the wrath of the Israeli War Machine, but would be totally abandoned by the International Community and their brothers in the Arab League in the most shameful way.

In the period leading up to Operation Cast Lead, we have to review some underlying issues that not only played a major part as to why Israel attacked Gaza but also the resultant aftermath that has left its people to suffer a type of slow genocide.

After the discovery of huge reserves of Natural Gas near to the Gaza Marine Area, it became apparent the people of Palestine were about to embark on a journey of great wealth and prosperity. Unfortunately this assumption was soon to be dashed by extreme levels of manipulation by the US, UK, Egypt and Israeli Governments that exists to this day.

The international community maintained much pressure on Israel to pull out of Gaza in an attempt to unite the two enclaves into one Palestinian State. It was during this interim period that Israel supported the construction of an international airport (funded primarily by Europe) close to the border of Egypt and the Rafah crossing. Israel also supported the foundation of a Palestinian Airline as well as a plan to create a port adjacent to Gaza City.

This initially gave great hope to the people of Gaza, but would soon be dashed by the evil actions of the Israeli Government during the Gaza pull out. As part of the deal, the Israelis demanded full control of all the Airspace, Seaspace and Borders. This was later reinforced by Abbas during the initial discussion with British Gas and Israel, that security of the offshore waters would be maintained by the IDF.

It became very clear the Palestinians would again remain under the control of the Israeli Authorities, especially the people of Gaza. This security arrangement actually became a full blockade of the Gaza Strip that exists to this day, and would have grave consequences on its future existence.

On 4 December 2001, Israel Military forces attacked the Gaza International airport, destroyed the air navigation facilities and bombarded runways and taxiways until the airport became unserviceable. When the Palestinian Authority attempted a repair on 11 January 2002, the Israeli military forces bombarded once again the airport and its facilities by aircraft, artillery and tanks, thereby destroying the runway, the taxiways and all facilities.

It was during this early period of gas exploration that I first became interested in researching the implications of Palestine owning such vast natural resources. Because of my own involvement in the oil and gas industry, and my knowledge of  the aviation and marine sectors, it became clear that a new era was about to emerge that would play a significant part in the future of Palestine, particularly that of the Gaza Strip.

Another area of interest was that of military activity in the Middle East and its direct link to natural resources. This interest further extended into the types of weapons used and what impact such weapons would have on the people of the region and their respective economies. It was from this moment onwards and up to the current time that I become increasingly concerned as to the evil that lies behind people’s greed for imperialistic growth.

It is clear to this day that this thrust to control the world resources has gone beyond imagination to a point that they will remove anyone or anything that stands in the way of economic progress. They will contaminate regions with their weaponry and finally pollute the world’s entire atmosphere. What makes their actions so absurd is the fact they currently place a strong emphasis on global warming, our so called carbon footprint, and the price we will all have to pay.

From my perspective, I ask the question, why does the world at large allow such countries as the US, UK, NATO member states, and Israel, to use these so called conventional weapons in the many theatres of war such as the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Gaza and now Pakistan? Do we the public understand that behind this false façade lie many weapons that comprise of Depleted Uranium (DU), Enriched Uranium, Tungsten, and an array of heavy metals and advanced composite, all of which are toxic to humans?

Do we the public understand that these nations put their own military forces in great danger and at the same time many thousands of innocent civilians that live in the regions of conflict? Do we all understand that long term contamination (4.5 billion years) not only remains in all of the respective regions, but also has the ability to transport itself into the world upper atmosphere on its long journey of worldwide contamination?

As an example, the map in http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=709 shows the regional extent of the immediate contamination from Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of using Depleted Uranium or Enriched Uranium weapons. Obviously this extends much further afield into the global atmosphere, which I will cover later in the series.

Peter Eyre, a former British Naval officer, worked at NATO headquarters and spent a lot of time in the Middle East and South East Asia as a petroleum consultant