Al-Krunz said that the airport would be built in the Al-Bqai’a area between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem. He added that 70 percent of the land marked for the airport project belongs to the Jerusalem area and the remainder to the Bethlehem area. The project is estimated to cost $340 million.

The minister added that the project would have a control tower, a terminal with six air bridges and a large parking lot. He said the airport would have a 3.2-km runway that would be good enough for large aircraft to land and take off.

Al-Krunz said the airport project had received the go-ahead from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and that the PA was seeking international funding.

He said the PA would not seek the approval of the Israeli government for the project since the construction of an airport in the West Bank was included in the Oslo Accords.

The minister said the PA would also build a port in the Gaza Strip. The port will be built on the shores of Sheikh Ijleen in the southern Gaza Strip. Al-Krunz said that France and the Netherlands had agreed to finance the project.

Tens of donor countries pledged more than $4.4 billion to rebuild the war-torn territory in a conference held in Sharm El-Sheikh in March 2009. But nothing happened on the ground until now because of intra-Palestinian strife as well as the Israeli siege of the coastal strip.

The PA and Hamas have differences of opinion over who should have control over the donations meant for rebuilding the territory devastated by an Israeli offensive in early 2009. Control over reconstruction funds would put huge sums of aid money in the hands of Hamas and could also give the group a measure of international recognition.

The PA is urging all parties to consider it the sole channel for administering the construction process. The Gaza-based Hamas government says it is the legitimate channel “to any Arab or foreign body that wants to rebuild what has been destroyed by the Israeli occupation.”

The Palestinian Ministry of National Economy said in September that the PA had lost up to $1.9 billion in lost revenue due to the siege of the Gaza Strip.

Israel imposed the siege on the territory in June 2006 after Hamas captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross border raid near the coastal enclave. Israel tightened the siege in June 2007, when Hamas routed security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and ousted his Fatah movement from the enclave.

Israel eased the siege to defuse international criticism after its soldiers killed nine Turks in Mavi Marmara sailing to run the blockade in May 2010. Israel still restricts shipments of construction materials through its land crossings with Gaza.