Ghnaim told the Voice of Palestine Radio that Israel started pumping gas from a natural gas and oil field near the West Bank village of Rantees, to the west of Ramallah.

The minister said that the field is located alongside the separation wall that divides the West Bank and Israel. He added that 80 percent of the field is on lands owned by the Rantees residents.

He added that the Israeli security forces have beefed up presence in the area, preventing villagers from reaching their lands and farms to keep the secrecy of the work.

Ghnaim said that Israel started the exploration activities in the field “without consulting or coordinating with the Palestinian Authority (PA).”

The Palestinian minister said that the “field contains 1.5 billion barrels of oil and about 1.7 billion cubic meter of natural gas.”

According to the minister, the Israeli move is in violation of the Oslo Peace Accords. Under the Oslo Accords, signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1993, any exploration work for natural resources should be coordinated and mutual.

Ghnaim said that the “PA will take urgent procedures that may include suing Israel in international courts.”

The Israeli Givot Olam Oil Ltd company said that it discovered the Meged oil field, potentially the largest oil field in Israel, in 2004. The company said it produces 1,000 barrels every day and it is scheduled to develop the production by November.

Israel started the construction of the eight-meter-high cement wall in the West Bank in 2002. It said that the wall is to prevent Palestinian militants from infiltrating into Israel and carry out deadly bombing attacks.

Israeli Supreme Court decided in September 2007 that the construction of the wall causes severe damages to residents of the village and demanded the government map out alternative route for the wall.

In 2004, the international court in The Hague ruled the wall “illegal” and called on Israel to demolish it. Israel rejected the decision.

Khalil Tafakji, the Palestinian expert of Israeli settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, said that the separation wall has relocated a great deal of rich farmland and water wells to the Israeli side of the wall.

Tafakji said that at least 115 Palestinian towns and villages have so far been directly affected by the wall which cuts them off from their land and resources. Of the 47 Palestinian towns and villages along phase one of the wall's route, 21 are separated from more than half of their land by the wall. Thirty-six groundwater wells and over 200 cisterns are isolated from their communities by the wall with an additional 14 wells threatened for demolition in the wall’s “buffer zone.”

He added that the wall significantly impaired access of Palestinians in isolated villages to hospitals, particularly in the cities of Tulkarm, Qalqilyah, and East Jerusalem. The expert said 71 primary health clinics were isolated from the rest of the West Bank between the wall and the green line or in areas enclaved by the depth wall.

According to Tafakji, these clinics whilst essential providers of primary health care are not fully equipped to serve the surrounding communities. For instance they do not have delivery rooms, or specialized doctors.