Updated Tue, October 22, 2024
Aftermath of Israeli strikes on houses and residential buildings, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip
By Thomas Escritt
BERLIN (Reuters) -The war between Israel and Hamas has devastated the Palestinian economy and left nearly all of Gaza's population in poverty, with quality of life indicators such as health and education knocked back 70 years, the United Nations' development agency said on Tuesday.
Launching a study on the war's socioeconomic impacts, the UNDP's Chitose Noguchi said the economy of the Palestinian territories - the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank - was now 35% smaller than it was at the start of Israel's invasion of Gaza a year ago.
By some measures the poverty level in Gaza was now approaching 100% as a result of the disruption, with unemployment now at 80%, Noguchi said.
"The state of Palestine is experiencing unprecedented levels of setbacks," she told a U.N. press conference in Geneva over a sometimes crackling line from Deir Al-Balah. "For Gaza, reversing development by an estimated 70 years to 1955."
Even under optimal conditions, with international aid remaining at current levels and flowing into Gaza and the West Bank unhindered, it would still take at least a decade for economic output to recover to pre-war levels, she said.
The war, launched by Israel after attacks by Hamas on Israeli territory on Oct. 7 last year that killed about 1,200 people, has brought immense destruction to the Gaza Strip.
Schools, hospitals and other essential infrastructure have been razed to the ground. Nearly 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to health ministry figures.
Some 3.3 million Palestinians, 2.3 million of them in Gaza and 1.5 million of them children, need urgent humanitarian assistance, the report said.
The cost of repairing damaged infrastructure was expected to run to $18.5 billion, almost the entire annual economic output of the Palestinian territories in 2022.
The war had taken a similarly severe toll on human capital, the report added, with 625,000 students in Gaza having no access to education at the end of September and 93% of school buildings severely damaged.
The situation was similar with regard to healthcare. A total of 986 health workers had been killed by the end of September, and less than half of primary healthcare centres were even partially functional.
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt, Editing by Rachel More and Angus MacSwan)
UN report: Gaza faces seven-decade setback and acute hunger crisis amid ongoing conflict
Tamsin Paternoster
Tue, October 22, 2024
UN report: Gaza faces seven-decade setback and acute hunger crisis amid ongoing conflict
Development in Gaza has been set back by as much as 69 years, according to an assessment made by a UN-backed report.
Poverty in Palestine is also set to rise by 74.3% in 2024, impacting a further 2.61 million people who are newly impoverished.
The impact of the year-long war has caused acute hunger, with around 86% of the population experiencing crisis levels of hunger, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA).
Efforts to get food supplies into the territory have been hampered by Israel's blockade, as well as ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order.
High numbers of displaced mean that thousands of people are packed into squalid tent camps or buildings repurposed as shelters.
In August, Gaza began a campaign to vaccinate children against polio as fears rose the disease would spread with the majority of the territory's healthcare system destroyed.
The UNDP says that the Palestinian economy could be put on a restorative track to align with its pre-war development goals in 10 years, but this would require a comprehensive recovery and reconstruction plan which combines humanitarian aid and strategic investment in recovery and reconstruction.
The report says that lifting economic restrictions is also essential to Gaza's recovery.
FILE - Palestinians displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on July 4, 2024. - AP Photo
Gaza has been under closure by land, sea and air since 2007. Restrictions on the movement of people, goods and technology imports have long impacted its economy before the intensification of Israeli strikes.
The UNDP estimates that Gaza's gross domestic product (GDP) will contract by 35.1% in 2024 with unemployment rising to 49.9%.
Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed over 42,000 people, as stated by the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Crucial humanitarian aid
The organisation added that humanitarian aid specifically allocated to Gaza's early post-war recovery would be crucial in its development.
“The assessment indicates that, even if humanitarian aid is provided each year, the economy may not regain its pre-crisis level for a decade or more. As conditions on the ground allow, the Palestinian people need a robust early recovery strategy," ESCWA Executive Secretary Rola Dashti said.
“Our assessments serve to sound the alarm over the millions of lives that are being shattered and the decades of development efforts that are being wiped out,” Dashti added.
Israel has said its war in Gaza is essential to wipe out Hamas and that its strikes and ongoing blockade are intended to target the militant group rather than civilians.
It has still faced increasing pressure from the UN and its key ally, the US, to address the current humanitarian situation.
Last week, the Biden administration warned that Israel could lose access to weapons funding if it did not increase the amount of humanitarian aid it is allowing into Gaza.
Related
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US threatens to cut military aid to Israel over Gaza humanitarian crisis
The UN sounded an alarm in early October that the amount of aid entering the Gaza Strip was at its lowest level in months, with the only three hospitals in northern Gaza facing severe shortages in key supplies.
Israel is currently targeting northern Gaza in an offensive it says is necessary to combat Hamas fighters who have regrouped in the territory's northern part.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that 85% of requests to get food into Gaza's north were denied by Israeli authorities.
COGAT, the Israeli-run body facilitating aid crossings into Gaza, has denied that crossings to the north have been closed.
‘Utter ruin’: Gaza economy would take 350 years to return to pre-conflict level, UN says
Larry Elliott Economics editor
THE GUARDIAN
Tue, October 22, 2024
Palestinians walk near rubble and destroyed buildings in Khan Younis. The UN report said that, by the end of July 2024, 88% of school buildings had suffered some damage and more than 62% of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed.Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Gaza’s economy has been left in “utter ruin” by the year-long war between Israel and Hamas, and it would take 350 years to return to its pre-conflict levels, the United Nations has warned.
In a report on the economic costs of the war prepared by its trade and development wing (Unctad), the UN said the fighting since Hamas killed more than 1,000 Israelis on 7 October last year had devastated the remnants of Gaza’s economy and infrastructure.
The report, presented to last month’s UN general assembly, said economic activity across Gaza – which had been weak before the war – had ground to a halt, apart from minimum humanitarian health and food services provided under conditions of severe water, fuel and electricity shortages, and significant access constraints.
Construction output was down by 96%, agriculture output by 93%, manufacturing by 92% and services sector output by 76%. Meanwhile, unemployment reached 81.7% in the first quarter of 2024, a rate the UN said was likely to worsen or persist for as long as the military operation continued.
“The intense military operations in Gaza resulted in an unprecedented humanitarian, environmental and social catastrophe and propelled Gaza from de-development to utter ruin,” the report said.
“The far-reaching repercussions will linger for years to come, and it may take decades to return Gaza to the status quo ante.
“Once a ceasefire is reached, a return to the 2007–2022 growth trend would imply that it would take Gaza 350 years just to restore GDP to its level in 2022.”
The report said the past 12 months of military action had followed a period between 2007 and 2022 when the economy of Gaza had been severely affected by restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of goods and people.
The UN said the income loss caused by the restrictions and military operations was “staggering”.
“According to thorough estimations described in the present report, in the absence of those constraints, by the end of 2023 it is estimated that Gaza’s gross domestic product (GDP) would have been, on average, 77.6% higher than its actual level.
“This implies a conservatively estimated cumulative loss of $35.8bn of unrealised GDP potential during the period 2007–2023 – equivalent to 17 times the GDP of Gaza in 2023.”
In the first three-quarters of 2023 – before the war began – the Gazan economy was contracting at an annual rate of about 3%. It contracted by 22.6% in 2023 as a whole, with 90% of that drop coming in the fourth quarter.
The report said that, by the end of July 2024, 88% of school buildings had suffered some damage, 21 out of 36 hospitals were out of service and 45 out of 105 primary health facilities were non-operational. More than 62% of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed, and more than 59% of the water, sanitation and hygiene sector infrastructure was heavily damaged, with an impact on water and sanitation services.
Unctad said in the fourth quarter of 2023, Gaza registered its largest economic slump in recent history. GDP contracted by 80.8% compared with the third quarter of 2023, while GDP a head fell by 81.4% over the same period.
Tue, October 22, 2024
Palestinians walk near rubble and destroyed buildings in Khan Younis. The UN report said that, by the end of July 2024, 88% of school buildings had suffered some damage and more than 62% of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed.Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Gaza’s economy has been left in “utter ruin” by the year-long war between Israel and Hamas, and it would take 350 years to return to its pre-conflict levels, the United Nations has warned.
In a report on the economic costs of the war prepared by its trade and development wing (Unctad), the UN said the fighting since Hamas killed more than 1,000 Israelis on 7 October last year had devastated the remnants of Gaza’s economy and infrastructure.
The report, presented to last month’s UN general assembly, said economic activity across Gaza – which had been weak before the war – had ground to a halt, apart from minimum humanitarian health and food services provided under conditions of severe water, fuel and electricity shortages, and significant access constraints.
Construction output was down by 96%, agriculture output by 93%, manufacturing by 92% and services sector output by 76%. Meanwhile, unemployment reached 81.7% in the first quarter of 2024, a rate the UN said was likely to worsen or persist for as long as the military operation continued.
“The intense military operations in Gaza resulted in an unprecedented humanitarian, environmental and social catastrophe and propelled Gaza from de-development to utter ruin,” the report said.
“The far-reaching repercussions will linger for years to come, and it may take decades to return Gaza to the status quo ante.
“Once a ceasefire is reached, a return to the 2007–2022 growth trend would imply that it would take Gaza 350 years just to restore GDP to its level in 2022.”
The report said the past 12 months of military action had followed a period between 2007 and 2022 when the economy of Gaza had been severely affected by restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of goods and people.
The UN said the income loss caused by the restrictions and military operations was “staggering”.
“According to thorough estimations described in the present report, in the absence of those constraints, by the end of 2023 it is estimated that Gaza’s gross domestic product (GDP) would have been, on average, 77.6% higher than its actual level.
“This implies a conservatively estimated cumulative loss of $35.8bn of unrealised GDP potential during the period 2007–2023 – equivalent to 17 times the GDP of Gaza in 2023.”
In the first three-quarters of 2023 – before the war began – the Gazan economy was contracting at an annual rate of about 3%. It contracted by 22.6% in 2023 as a whole, with 90% of that drop coming in the fourth quarter.
The report said that, by the end of July 2024, 88% of school buildings had suffered some damage, 21 out of 36 hospitals were out of service and 45 out of 105 primary health facilities were non-operational. More than 62% of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed, and more than 59% of the water, sanitation and hygiene sector infrastructure was heavily damaged, with an impact on water and sanitation services.
Unctad said in the fourth quarter of 2023, Gaza registered its largest economic slump in recent history. GDP contracted by 80.8% compared with the third quarter of 2023, while GDP a head fell by 81.4% over the same period.
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