Alaa Alzanin, his wife, five children, his 71-year-old mother, and his younger sister are surviving after they lost their home in Beit Hanoon during the Israeli occupation. They are residing in a tiny tent at a UN-run school in central Gaza City. They have been forced to live in this tent because they have had eight previous winters to avoid the rain and cold.
Because of his lack of employment, Alzanin, 41, is unable to support his family. He works as a day laborer in the Gaza Strip, but he is also unemployed like the hundreds of thousands of others who live in the area.
He continued, adding that he previously worked in the fields of agriculture and infrastructure and that he could no longer provide for his family.
I used to sand the soil around the trees, spray pesticides, plant tomatoes and cucumbers, and use an axe to open water channels between the trees. I used to work from 7am to 4pm for 40–50 shekels [$13-$15] per day. ”
Majed Hamouda is another unemployed man. The 53-year-old man from Jabalia, northern Gaza, has polio, and his wife carries thalassaemia. He lives in a camp close to the Remal neighborhood school with his five children. Due to his poor health, he can’t work and relies on financial aid from the Ministry of Development and charity. And his aid has stopped since the start of the war.
We only look at living people, yes, I vouch, but we are still like dead people. Even dogs live better lives than dogs, according to Hamouda, according to Al Jazeera, if they destroy your home and evict you from the streets like dogs.
No one would intervene, but the dog in the street kicked it off, he said, adding that we were [kicked out] and displaced in the streets. as one of his daughters began to cry.
The father asks his only son to come up with plastic bags and garbage from the streets so he can support his family when they have nothing to eat on occasion.
Yaqoub, my son, was the first child in the fourth grade in the north. He conducted eight exemplary scientific experiments for his or her age and was awarded the Little Scientist prize from the Ministry of Education. I regret looking at him as he runs after the camp’s hot meal deliveries and gathers nylon to cook food. He explained that he occasionally makes me cry.
It has since become inhumane to eat a cucumber or a tomato, and this is now. ”
Israel almost completely destroyed the Gaza Strip after more than two years of fighting, leaving it with a hunger crisis and widespread famine. According to the World Food Programme of the United Nations, supplies entering the besieged enclave do not meet the nutritional needs of the residents there. Because Israel has restricted deliveries and only two crossings into Palestinian territory are open, the aid entering the territory is significantly below its daily goal of 2,000 tonnes.
In a report released in the middle of October, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported that the Gaza Strip’s unemployment rate increased by 80% and the Palestinian unemployment rate increased by 50% during Israel’s occupation. Additionally, according to the bureau, Palestine has 550 000 unemployed people.
The Palestinian gross domestic product (GDP) had fallen to its 2010 level by the end of last year, according to a report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), erasing 22 years of development in two years.
The Gaza Strip experienced economic growth before the war, with the opening of numerous commercial, tourist, and industrial projects, according to Maher Altabbaa, the director-general of the Gaza Governorate Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
However, the enclave’s GDP has decreased by 83 percent over the past year, or $ 362,0, over the course of two years, to $ 362,0. The world’s lowest GDP per person was $161, which is below the lowest level ever.
The private sector, which accounts for a sizable portion of Gaza’s GDP, has historically been its main economic engine.
According to Altabbaa, the agricultural sector’s main driver is “it is the main driver in the Gaza Strip, where it used to contribute more than 52% of employment, relying on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the backbone,” adding that the Gaza Strip contributed about 17% of the Palestinian GDP.
Since Israel imposed a land, sea, and air blockade in 2007, the Strip’s economy wasn’t as strong as it was even before October 2023.
Prior to this war, more than 63 percent of the population was in poverty, according to some local Palestinian estimates, and the British government estimated that about 80% of the population was already dependent on humanitarian aid.
According to the government of Gaza, 90% of all industries, including housing and infrastructure, have already been destroyed. However, it claimed that it intends to stabilize the economy and create jobs, but that will depend on several factors.
According to Ismail al-Thawabta, the head of the Gaza Government Media Office, “Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are best positioned to absorb the workforce in the short term, and regulating the market and preventing monopolies resulting from import restrictions, which have resulted in sharp price distortions and high inflation rates,” the economy lost total $70 billion.
In addition to creating an accurate economic database to aid decision-making and the development of upcoming economic policies, we want to create productive projects, not just relief efforts, as well as temporary and emergency employment programs targeting youths, graduates, and affected workers, he said. He claimed that reopening all border crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip would allow for the free movement of raw materials, production inputs, and spare parts.
According to him, “the key productive sectors [industry, agriculture, and services] must be reestablished as the true path to reducing reliance on aid” and “industry, agriculture, and services” must be restored.
Israel has yet to implement the United States president’ ceasefire and peace plan, and the second phase of that plan is still a mystery.
However, it is obvious that Gaza will need to recover economically and emerge from the brink of war.
Alzanin and his wife Mariam, who are three months along, are now receiving some food but still don’t have any money.
We consume hot meals and feel satisfied after arriving at the camp, but because it is not nutritious, Mariam continued, adding that she still wants to buy food she cannot afford.
We can’t get everything for the children because we see everything in the markets; They claim that because we only want bananas, apples, fish, and eggs, we get tiny portions that are not enough for them.
Source: Aljazeera
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