In pictures: the former glory of Gaza’s international airport

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  October 27, 1998: Palestinians workers asphalt a road at Gaza international airport on the Gaza Strip. The Wye River memorandum signed in Washington by Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu finally clinched a deal to open the airport early November. AFP Photo

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  November 24, 1998: A Palestinian policeman leads a horse rider away from a Jordanian plane which landed on the Gaza international airport before its opening day. AFP Photo

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  November 24, 1998: A general view of Gaza international airport on its inauguration when planes from Egypt, Morocco, Spain, Austria, the European Community and then Palestinian Airlines landed. The airport cost US$ 250 million to build and its opening was delayed some 20 months. AFP Photo

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  December 13, 1998: Two huge US and Palestinian flags hang from the control tower of the Gaza international airport in Rafah City ahead of the historic visit by US president Bill Clinton – the first ever visit by a US president to the Palestinian territories. AFP Photo

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  December 14, 1998: Then-US president Bill Clinton, second from left, who was accompanied by his wife Hillary, left, and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, wave to the crowds upon the Clintons’ arrival at the Gaza international airport in Rafah. Clinton made history when he flew into Gaza airport on a highly symbolic first visit ever by a US leader to the Palestinian territories. AFP Photo

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  October 19, 1999: Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat and the former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela wave to a cheering crowd during their meeting at Gaza international airport. AFP Photo

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  September 9, 2001: A lone luggage trolley stands in front of the abandoned check-in counters at the Gaza international airport, outside the southern Gaza town of Rafah. The 70-million-dollar airport which opened in November 1998 was closed forced tp close in February 2001 during a conflict with Israel. AFP Photo

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  December 13, 2001: A Palestinian police officer inspects the rubble of a building at the Gaza international airport in Rafah after Israeli raids. Israeli warplanes bombarded Palestinian security buildings in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in swift revenge during the second intifida AFP Photo

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  November 8, 2004: Palestinian security personnel walk on the Gaza international airport strip that was destroyed by the Israeli army bulldozers nearly three years before. Said Khatib/AFP Photo

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  August 18, 2014: A Palestinian boy standing outside the destroyed and deserted Gaza Strip’s former international airport in the southern town of Rafah. Residents of Gaza dream of the day planes will land and take off here again – a key demand of the Islamist Hamas movement and was at the heart of the 50-day Gaza-Israel conflict that ended with a ceasefire last week. Thomas Coex/ AFP Photo

Once a symbol of Palestinian hopes for statehood, the Yasser Arafat or Dahaniya international airport has become a constant reminder that Gaza is largely cut off from the outside world.

Israeli forces hit the airport’s radar tower in 2001 during the second intifada, when Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza launched an uprising against the Israeli occupation, forcing it to stop work. Today, the airport is barely recognisable from its days of former glory.