Many saw 1998 inauguration of the airport as a milestone, paving the way to creation of independent Palestinian state, but it now stands as a reminder of how much more progress is needed.

In Gaza, a shell of a structure offers a symbol of what could have been.

The airport that could once handle 700,000 passengers is rubble, shut down during the second Intifada in 2000 and bombed by Israel in 2001.

It had been a place of hope and connected Palestine to capital cities around the Middle East, but now is a reminder of just how far Palestinians are from their own independent state.

Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reports from Gaza.

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