Not only is Israel the US cop for US oil profits in the Middle East, but Gaza has lots of offshore gas fields, the explanation for this takeover by US/Israel of Gaza. The name of the game is always money.

From: "War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza's Offshore Gas Fields "by Michel Chossudovsky

The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves.

This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline.

British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon's Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority.

The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent). (Haaretz, October 21, 2007).

Continued at:
 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11680