DaysofPal – The UN issued a dire warning on Tuesday, stating that Israel’s war has destroyed Gaza’s economy and is now endangering the Strip’s “very survival.” It called for immediate and extensive international intervention to stop the Strip’s irreversible collapse.
In a new report, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that reconstructing Gaza will cost more than $70 billion and could take decades, stressing that the war and the sweeping Israeli restrictions have triggered “an unprecedented breakdown of the Palestinian economy.”
The report said that Israel’s war of destruction has “undermined every pillar of survival, including food, shelter, and healthcare, pushing Gaza into a man-made abyss,” and the continuous, methodical destruction raises questions about whether the Strip will ever be able to reconstruct itself into a livable society.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza, whose data the UN considers reliable, reports that Israeli airstrikes and ground operations have killed at least 69,756 Palestinians, the vast majority women and children.
The war has produced catastrophic destruction and a humanitarian collapse that has already reached the point of famine in several areas.
UNCTAD warns that the scale of devastation has unleashed overlapping economic, humanitarian, environmental, and social crises, turning Gaza’s trajectory from “developmental decline” to “absolute ruin.”
The report adds that even with double-digit economic growth and massive external aid, Gaza would still require many decades to return to the level of basic well-being it had before October 2023.
UNCTAD called for a comprehensive recovery plan, including coordinated international assistance, the resumption of financial transfers, easing restrictions on trade, movement, and investment, and the establishment of an emergency universal basic income to provide every resident of Gaza with a monthly, unconditional cash transfer.
According to the findings, Gaza’s economy contracted by 87% between 2023 and 2024, plunging GDP per capita to just $161, one of the lowest levels in the world.
The report also raises the alarm about the situation in the occupied West Bank. While not facing the same magnitude of destruction as Gaza, rising Israeli violence, accelerating settlement expansion, and movement restrictions on Palestinian workers have “devastated the economy,” marking the worst economic decline since data collection began in 1972.
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