The cement lifeline: How El-Arish Port sustained Israel’s settlement boom
In the fall of 2023, as the world’s gaze fixed on the unfolding genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip, the Port of El-Arish received a massive Turkish aid ship. From that moment on, and throughout two years of active genocide, the state presented the port as a gateway to saving its trapped neighbors.
Maj. Gen. Mohamed Al-Sherif, the port’s director, said it was operating at full capacity to ensure the uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Egyptian efforts, he stressed, had transformed El-Arish into a central hub for relief operations.
But another, jarring reality lay concealed behind this humanitarian facade. An analysis of export data reveals that the port has evolved more into a strategic maritime logistics hub, with Israel alone accounting for roughly 29% of its total foreign exports. Through El-Arish, 30% of Egypt’s total exports to the genocidal state in 2025 were shipped.
Egyptian exports to Israel recorded a historic leap after the outbreak of genocide in Gaza, reaching $289.7 million in 2024—an increase of nearly 100% compared to 2023. The acceleration did not slow in 2025.
According to data from Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) and Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), total exports reached $319.2 million by November, a record figure signaling an unprecedented trade surge that coincided with mounting regional tensions.(*)
In this investigation, based on an analysis of official government data, we trace the upward trajectory of Egyptian exports to Israel alongside the transformation of the Port of El-Arish over just three years. In 2021, the port was a marginal outlet contributing just 0.1% of Egypt’s exports to Israel, valued at $149,000. By 2024, it had become a primary corridor and strategic maritime logistics hub, accounting for 23% of export value. In the first nine months of 2025, that share climbed to 30%.
Relying on open-source vessel tracking data, we also reconstruct the operational profile of the fleet that provided logistical support to Israel at the height of its regional isolation, and identify the Egyptian companies and entities sustaining this trade flow.
Emirati investment fuels local displacement
In 2019, a presidential decree transferred authority over the Port of El-Arish and its 371 feddans of land to the Armed Forces. Two years later, another decree expanded the port’s area to more than 541 feddans by expropriating and incorporating adjacent tracts.
The expansion required demolishing thousands of homes in the Al-Reisa neighborhood to expand the harbor basin and berthing envelope. Residents' testimonies and local human rights' reports record that the clearing of Al-Reisa was completed without fair compensation, but not without opposition.
A wave of popular protests erupted in North Sinai in mid-2022, led by elderly residents, women and children from Al-Reisa who lay down in front of bulldozers. Local activists and tribal leaders joined them, demanding either the right to remain or fair compensation.
As protests intensified, demolition work was halted in July 2023. In October of that year, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi tasked transport minister Kamel Al-Wazir with meeting representatives of the residents. The minister pledged that no demolitions would proceed without a satisfactory agreement.
Soon after, however, expansion resumed at full pace. Under the supervision of the Armed Forces Engineering Authority, the port’s infrastructure underwent a comprehensive maritime retrofit. It was upgraded into an international port connected to the national railway network.
The quay was extended to one kilometer and the navigational draft deepened to 12 meters. An economic zone was also established, enabling the port to receive bulk carriers with deadweight tonnage of up to 40,000 tons.
As part of the development works, the Emirati AD Ports Group entered into a partnership in March 2023 with the Suez Canal Economic Zone Authority, investing $33 million to establish two dedicated bulk cement handling terminals at the ports of El-Arish and West Port Said.
The project includes cement silos with a capacity of 60,000 tons under a 15-year usufruct agreement. This raises the port’s throughput capacity to between 1 million and 1.5 million tons annually, boosting yearly exports by more than 200,000 tons to Mediterranean and global markets.
The result was a marked escalation in cement consignments bound for Israel and an unprecedented rise in Egyptian exports routed through the port, as we detail below.
Trade flows under Palestinian cover
Since the outbreak of war and through October 2025, the port received no more than 31 aid ships. Meanwhile, Israel has remained the port’s top export destination.
Trade with Israeli ports surpasses the combined total exported to more than six other international destinations. Exports reached $33.9 million to Gambia, $30.2 million to Syria, $29 million to Sierra Leone, $23.4 million to the United States, $14 million to Ghana and $4.4 million to the United Arab Emirates.
Our analysis of foreign trade data reveals a structural and accelerated realignment in the structure of Egypt’s exports to Israel. In 2022 and 2023, cement exports did not exceed $5.8 million. In 2024 and through September 2025, they jumped to $140.6 million.
Cement’s share of total Egyptian exports to Israel rose to 26.5%, up from just 1.6% previously.
This growth transformed Israel from a marginal destination—ranked 52nd among importers of Egyptian cement in 2022 and 2023—into the sixth-largest global destination by October 2025.
Cement drives the export boom
Historically, Egyptian cement has been a strategic commodity for Israel, which resorted to various methods to import it for use in constructing the West Bank separation wall.
During the second Palestinian Intifada, Cairo responded to public pressure by halting exports. Direct import attempts faltered, including a failed bid by the Israeli company Blensky Ltd., which had sought shipments from Misr Beni Suef Cement.
In 2004, investigations by the Palestinian Legislative Council had uncovered a complex scheme involving senior Palestinian Authority officials. Palestinian import permits signed by then-economy minister Maher Al-Masri were used by companies owned by the brother of Civil Affairs Minister Jamil Al-Tarifi (Al-Tarifi Company) and other influential actors, notably Al-Baraka Company.
The scheme had enabled the passage of approximately 420,000 tons of Egyptian cement through Al-Awja (Nitzana) crossing. Ownership was later transferred, under the supervision of international and Egyptian intermediaries, to Israeli firms.
During the ongoing Israeli war of aggression, however, Egypt’s cement exports to Palestine also increased—from $59.7 million in 2022 and 2023 to $144.5 million in 2024 and the first nine months of 2025.
This rise coincided with an Israeli Economy Ministry emergency plan to counter the Turkish exporting embargo in light of the war on Gaza. The plan positioned Egypt as a geo-economically stable strategic alternative supplier for construction materials.
The official recommendation called for using Palestinian Authority traders as a “front”—a third party—to request goods and re-route them into the Israeli domestic market, circumventing trade restrictions in exchange for modest brokerage fees.
Cement entry into Gaza had completely halted in October 2023 and did not resume until the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, which began in late January 2025.
At the same time, Israel continues to deny Palestinians building rights in Area C, which covers more than 60% of the West Bank and remains under full Israeli control. In order to build or renovate their homes, Palestinians must apply for permits that are rarely granted. Since October 2023, 282 applications have been submitted—none approved.
Available data show that Israel demolished around 2,560 buildings in the West Bank in 2024 and 2025, citing lack of permits.
Palestinian housing construction fell by 24% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the previous quarter of 2024, and by 15% compared to the same quarter in 2024.
In contrast, 2025 alone saw tenders issued for 10,098 Israeli settlement housing units.
This construction boom aligns with statements by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who boasted of approving 51,370 settlement housing units since taking office in late 2022.
Four firms control cement exports
In October 2025, a taxi driver posted a photo on the Facebook group “El-Arish Lost & Found” showing four plastic bags of Portland cement left behind by customers. When OSINT blogger EgyptIntel analyzed the data printed on the bags, they found them to be of samples from a shipment by El-Arish Cement Company, owned by the Egyptian Armed Forces’ National Service Projects Organization (NSPO).
The shipment was scheduled for transport aboard the vessel Jasim. Our analysis of Jasim's tracking data showed it ultimately arrived in Israel.
According to EgyptIntel, the shipment was delivered to Heidelberg Materials Trading, the German cement specialist. The company has an Israeli subsidiary, Hanson Israel, which the UN Human Rights Council placed on its blacklist during its 59th session in July 2025 due to complicity in illegal Israeli settlements.
El-Arish Cement was established in 2010 in the Jabal Labna area south of El-Arish in North Sinai. Its annual production capacity is approximately 3.2 million tons.
Alongside El-Arish Cement, three major companies control the bulk of cement export flows to Israel, according to foreign trade database records published by Egypt’s CAPMAS. Ownership structures cut across European investments, local industrial magnates and former military figures.
Sinai Cement leads the list among 313 Egyptian companies exporting to Israel.
Founded in 1997, the company underwent a radical ownership shift after legal action against its founder and former chairman Hassan Rateb in 2021. Today, France’s Vicat Group holds a controlling 67% stake, while local Reliance Logistics, owned by businessman Magdy Kasebji, holds about 15.2%.
Sinai White Cement, one of the world’s largest white cement producers with an annual capacity of 1.1 million tons, transferred nearly full ownership (96.5%) in August 2024 to the Dutch group Cementir through its subsidiary Aalborg Portland Holding. It had also previously been owned by Hassan Rateb.
Meanwhile, the Spanish ARIDOS JATIVA controls 60% of Arabian Cement. JATIVA is affiliated with Cementos La Union.
The shareholder structure also includes prominent Egyptian industrial and political figures. Retired Col. Fayek El-Bourini, son of former Third Army commander Maj. Gen. Mohamed El-Bourini, holds 10%. El-Bourini Jr. had mediated the privatization of Misr Beni Suef Cement under then-Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, as the Panama Papers leaks revealed his connection with this deal.
Sadek Elsewedy, chairman of Elsewedy Industries, holds 12.5%, according to a report by the Egyptian fact-finding initiative Matsada’ash.
Marble and granite fill the gap
The Israeli emergency plan did not stop at securing cement. It extended to marble and granite—a sector historically dominated by Turkey.
According to the list of alternatives prepared by Israel’s Economy Ministry, Egypt ranked among the countries positioned to replace Turkish marble. Trade figures reflect that shift. Egyptian marble and granite exports surged by 300% during the two years of war, reaching $2.4 million, compared to about $615,000 in 2022 and 2023.(*)
Most of the companies exporting to Israel are concentrated in Torah, Maadi and Basateen. Prominent names include Progress Marble which operates its own quarries and contracts others in Sinai, according to the company’s website.
Other exporters include Modern Marble, Arab African Company, Al-Badr Marble, and Al-Hamd Company in Ezbet Al-Nasr in Basateen.
Together, they reflect a vertically integrated Egyptian supply chain that begins in mountain quarries and ends in Israeli construction projects and expanding settlement units.
Several firms also manage their export operations from Maadi’s suburbs. Among them are Al-Etemad Trading, located on Badr Street off Al-Gezira Street, and Modern Stone Foundation, MarmoStar and MarmoStone—all headquartered in the “Imtidad Al-Amal” towers on the main axis road in Maadi.
The shadow fleet at sea
Despite the absence of any officially declared shipping line between the Port of El-Arish and Israeli ports, we tracked every vessel that docked at El-Arish in 2025.
According to MagicPort, 492 voyages were carried out by 164 ships that year. Of those, 32 vessels operated in quasi-regular shuttle rotations between El-Arish, Ashdod and Haifa after entering service on the route in early 2024.
Among the most frequent callers were the cement carriers ANGELOS K and ZAYYAN K, owned by Greece-based SHINKA SHIPPING CO SA and sailing under the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
They were joined by the general cargo vessel JASIM, operated by a Turkish company and sailing under the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Vessel tracking data throughout 2025, Al Manassa confirmed its repeated transport of cement shipments to Israel.
Our analysis of this fleet reveals what amounts to a logistical cluster controlled by a limited group of companies. At sea, the trade consolidates into a tight network—repetitive routes, recurring hulls and overlapping management. Most are based in Greece, with others registered in Turkey, Germany, Egypt, Switzerland, Canada, Sri Lanka and Israel.
Many operate under flags of convenience—Saint Kitts, Palau, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Panama and Portugal—facilitating jurisdictional flexibility and reducing regulatory scrutiny.
Greek firms command the largest share, with seven companies operating 18 vessels. Among them is SAN NIKOLLA, which manages a cluster of six cement and cargo ships maintaining a fixed rotation between El-Arish, Haifa and Ashdod. The pattern is steady: dock, discharge, reload, return.
Other companies include NOVA CORALIA, AQUIS PERLA, ARIA VIBE, DONA BLE, ITALIAN TRADER and REGINA MED, whose vessels sail under the Panamanian flag.
The company ANNA operates a mixed fleet—YAM1, ANNA, TAMNON and JOAVI—ensuring regular links between El-Arish and Haifa. These vessels sail under the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis, except for TAMNON, which flies the Liberian flag.
Two vessels, AEGINA STAR and AEGINA VENTURE, owned by Aegina Maritime, operate on a multi-port circuit linking El-Arish, Haifa, Iskenderun in Turkey and Damietta. They sail under the flag of Sao Tome and Príncipe. In 2024 and 2025, they were managed by an Israeli company, HAIFA MARINE.
Al Manassa’s investigation also uncovered direct Israeli ownership and management of some ships. Dynamic Shipping manages and operates the cement carrier MILBURN, owned by Israel-based Milburn Line, which maintains a steady cement trade lane between El-Arish and Haifa.
Deeper within these operations, two vessels—CEMENT 1 and CEMENT 2— stand out. They appear and disappear in databases as movements, not as identities.
Although maritime tracking data recorded them making more than 20 regular trips between El-Arish and Ashdod in 2025 alone, they lack any traceable beneficial ownership registry identifying their owners or operators. No photographs of the vessels appear in global shipping databases.
This opacity reflects a classic shadow fleet concealment tactic, obscuring links between exporting companies and receiving entities while avoiding human rights scrutiny over shipments moving through tightly controlled security environments, far from public view.
On the Egyptian side, the container ship PAN GG, flying the Egyptian flag and owned by Pan Marine, chaired by Haridy El-Shazly Haridy, operates between El-Arish, Ashdod and Haifa. In early 2025, the vessel’s operating company changed, altering its route activity between El-Arish and Israeli ports.
Expansion over Al-Reisa’s ruins
This maritime buildup coincides with the launch of the second phase of the Port of El-Arish’s development. As shipping frequencies rise and new carriers enter service, the port’s physical footprint expands in tandem—sea lanes and shorelines reshaped at once.
Last July, despite local anger, the Suez Canal Economic Zone Authority began implementation at a cost exceeding 2.5 billion Egyptian pounds (about $49 million).
A source on the authority’s board of directors, who spoke to Al Manassa on condition of anonymity, said the second phase includes constructing three new marine berths to receive various types of cargo and vessels, with a combined length of two kilometers.
The project will also include storage yards and warehouses covering up to 425,000 square meters, and increasing the port’s navigational draft to 14 meters to accommodate large-tonnage ships, the source revealed.
These expansions rise over the remains of Al-Reisa neighborhood. The same berths that receive bulk cement and the same yards that store it stand where homes once stood.
In July, the government resumed demolition works in the fourth and fifth zones of the district, targeting 180 additional homes.
The move sparked renewed protests, with residents chanting, “We won’t leave our homes, even if it costs us our lives,” “Where are your promises, minister?” and “This land is Egyptian—not Emirati,” in reference to agreements signed with AD Ports Group to establish cement handling terminals.
Earlier, a senior official in North Sinai governorate familiar with the matter told Al Manassa that the government was seeking to persuade residents through various compensation mechanisms.
These included offering licensed land plots in Al-Reisa subdivision for 200,000 Egyptian pounds (about $3,920), temporary housing in the nearby Al-Sabeel neighborhood, or turnkey apartments in Al-Reisa for 350,000 Egyptian pounds (about $6,860).
He said demolitions carried out so far followed the signing of evacuation forms at the governorate’s headquarters. However, he acknowledged that the majority of residents rejected settlement offers and refused to leave their homes under the compensation terms approved by the government.
In late November 2025, residents protested again amid the absence of any signs of resolution and without receiving invitations for dialogue with officials, chanting, “By its length and by its breadth, we will never give up this land.”
Exports poised for new records
Shipping and port traffic indicators in early 2026 indicate that cement flows are on track to reach new record levels.
The Greek company SHINKA contracted a new cement carrier, HAKEEM K, which began operating on the El-Arish–Ashdod route in January 2026, joining its sister ships ANGELOS K and ZAYYAN K and increasing shipping frequency between the two ports.
Expansion did not stop with the Greek partner. Additional cement and bulk carriers entered service on the same route at the start of this year, including TANHO, operated by Germany’s NIRMATA; BLUE CIMENT 4, operated by Cyprus-based INTERSHIP NAVIGATION; and A LINE, operated by Turkey’s ISKELE DENIZCILIK TICARET.
(*)Investigation methodology and sources
Foreign trade data: This investigation relies on export volumes and dollar values drawn from the foreign trade database of Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). The database is an official source that requires a paid annual subscription to access detailed shipment records and destination data.
The value of Egypt’s exports to Israel and period comparisons can be extracted by selecting “country” and defining the desired “time range” within the database search engine.
Identifying exporting companies: A list of Egyptian companies exporting to the Israeli side can be accessed through the “exporters and importers” directory by selecting Israel as the destination country and specifying the “data type.”
Cement sector analysis: The volume and value of cement exports were isolated by selecting the destination “country” and specifying the “commodity classification” (Portland cement or other relevant tariff codes), or by selecting the relevant chapter categories and defining the required time period and filters.
Maritime tracking: Vessel routes and operating companies were monitored and analyzed through international maritime tracking platforms, including Magic Port.
Note to readers: Access to the attached links and detailed company and vessel records requires creating a free account on the MagicPort platform and activating the seven-day trial period, which grants paid-level access to full voyage histories and historical data.