Gaza International (Yasser Arafat International Airport), Palestine
Wikimedia CommonsNamed for the former chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat International was shuttered in 2000 during a Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada.
Once a sign of Palestinian hope, this now abandoned airport opened in 1998 and then shuttered its doors three years later after the control tower was bombed.
Palestinians were optimistic for an independent state during this time, but when the airport’s grand opening rolled around, things were already falling apart politically.
Wikimedia Commons
Two years after opening, a Palestinian uprising now known as the Second Intifida occurred that included the suicide bombings of Israeli targets. The ensuing fighting lasted five years and saw Israeli warplanes bomb a Gaza runway in retaliation.
In 2007, the Hamas terror group seized Gaza and continued to fight in three bloody conflicts with Israel in the subsequent years. Bombings further devastated the already defunct airport. Virtually no air traffic has happened here since the original Palestinian uprising.
Presently, the runway is littered with garbage from a nearby refugee camp, and locals scavenge the area for anything of value they can carry away.
