The UN called for “immediate and substantial” international intervention in the Palestinian territory on Tuesday, warning that Israel’s conflict in Gaza has devastated the country’s economy and threatens its very survival.
The UN Trade and Development Agency (UNCTAD) warned that a “unprecedented collapse across the Palestinian economy” had resulted from a new report warning that war and restrictions had caused an “unprecedented collapse across the Palestinian economy” and that reconstruction work would cost more than $70 billion and could take several decades.
According to the statement, “the military operations have significantly undermined every pillar of survival,” from food to shelter to healthcare, and have plunged Gaza into a human-made abyss.
“The continued, systematic destruction leaves a lot of questions about how well-equipped Gaza is to resurrect itself as a place and society,” he said.
1, 221 people were killed when the Palestinian-led Hamas attack in southern Israel in October 2023, sparking a devastating two-year conflict in Gaza.
More than 69 000 people have died as a result of Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza, according to UN-reliable health ministry data.
Read more about At least 50 killed in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza’s civil defense.
According to UNCTAD’s report, the magnitude of the destruction wrought on the territory has “unleashed cascading crises, economic, humanitarian, environmental, and social, propelling (it) from de-development to utter ruin.”
Even “in an optimistic scenario of double-digit growth rates supported by a significant level of foreign aid,” it said. “Gaza will take several decades for Gaza to return to pre-October 2023 welfare levels.”
UNCTAD advocated for a “comprehensive recovery plan” that combines “coordinated international assistance, restoration of fiscal transfers, and measures to ease trade, movement, and investment constraints.”
The UN agency also calls for the introduction of a universal emergency basic income, requiring that everyone in Gaza receive a renewable and unrestricted monthly transfer of cash in response to “extreme, multidimensional impoverishment” of the entire population.
According to the report, Gaza’s economy shrank by 87 percent between 2023 and 2024, leaving its GDP per capita at just $161, one of the lowest levels ever.
The West Bank’s situation was worse, but according to the report, “violence, accelerated settlement expansion, and restrictions on worker mobility have decimated the economy there as well,” “resulting in the worst economic decline since UNCTAD began maintaining records in 1972.”
Source: Channels TV
Leave a Reply