DaysofPal – Crammed inside a tiny tent at a United Nations–run school in central Gaza City, Alaa Alzanin shelters with his wife, their five children, his 71-year-old mother, and his younger sister. The family fled their home in Beit Hanoon after it was destroyed during Israel’s war on Gaza. Displaced eight times, the tent has become their final refuge from winter rain and biting cold.
At 41, Alzanin can no longer support his family. Once a day laborer in agriculture and infrastructure, he is now unemployed, one among hundreds of thousands across the Gaza Strip who have lost their livelihoods.
“Now I have no work. I can’t provide for my family,” he told Al Jazeera. Before the war, he worked long hours digging irrigation channels, plowing soil, spraying pesticides, and planting tomatoes and cucumbers. “I used to work from 7 am to 4 pm for 40 to 50 shekels a day,” he recalled.
Like Alzanin, Majed Hamouda, 53, from Jabalia in northern Gaza, has been pushed to the brink. Hamouda, who has polio, is sheltering with his wife, who is a thalassemia carrier, and their five children at a school camp in Gaza City’s Remal neighborhood. Unable to work due to his health, he relied on financial assistance from the Ministry of Development and charitable aid. Since the war began, even that support has stopped.
“We are like dead people, but not buried yet,” Hamouda said. “If someone destroys your home and throws you into the streets like dogs, even dogs live better lives than ours.” As he spoke, one of his daughters broke down in tears.
Some days, the Hamouda family has no food at all. When that happens, Hamouda asks his only son, Yaqoub, to collect plastic and rubbish from the streets to sell. Yaqoub was once a top student in his class, winning the Ministry of Education’s “Little Scientist” award after completing eight scientific experiments.
“Now I watch him collecting nylon to burn for cooking food and chasing hot-meal trucks in the camp,” Hamouda said quietly. “Sometimes I cry when I see him.”
“Today, eating a tomato or a cucumber has become a dream,” he added. “This is inhumane.”
An Economy in Collapse
After more than two years of war, Gaza has been left in ruins, facing a severe hunger crisis and widespread famine. The UN World Food Programme has warned that aid entering the besieged enclave is far below what is needed to meet basic nutritional requirements. Only two crossings remain open, and Israeli restrictions have sharply limited deliveries, falling far short of the 2,000 tonnes per day required.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, unemployment has surged to 50 percent across Palestine, reaching 80 percent in Gaza, leaving more than 550,000 people without work.
A UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report states that in just two years, Palestinian GDP has erased more than 20 years of progress, returning to 2010 levels, while GDP for each person has fallen back to 2003 levels.
“Before the war, Gaza witnessed economic growth, with new commercial, tourism, and industrial projects,” said Maher Altabbaa, director-general of the Gaza Governorate Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “It had become a destination for investment.”
That progress has since been obliterated. Gaza’s GDP plunged 83 percent in 2024 alone, falling to $362 million, while GDP for each person dropped to $161, among the lowest figures globally. Over two years, economic output has collapsed by 87 percent.
Historically, Gaza’s private sector was its economic backbone, accounting for more than 52 percent of employment, largely through small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Agriculture also achieved near self-sufficiency in several products and contributed 17 percent of the Palestinian GDP. Yet even before October 2023, Gaza’s economy struggled under Israel’s land, sea, and air blockade imposed in 2007, with poverty levels exceeding 63 percent and around 80 percent of residents dependent on humanitarian aid.
Rebuilding from the Rubble
The Gaza government estimates that 90 percent of all sectors, including housing and infrastructure, have now been destroyed. Total economic losses are estimated at $70 billion.
“We need to support small and medium-sized enterprises because they can absorb workers quickly,” said Ismail al-Thawabta, head of the Gaza Government Media Office. He stressed the importance of regulating markets, preventing monopolies, and reopening all crossings to allow raw materials and spare parts into the Strip.
“The productive sectors, industry, agriculture, and services, must be rebuilt as the real path to job creation and reducing dependence on aid,” he said.
For now, the future remains uncertain. The ceasefire and peace plan announced by US President Donald Trump has yet to be fully implemented by Israel, and its second phase remains unclear.
What is clear, however, is the scale of Gaza’s challenge.
Back in the tent, Alzanin’s wife, Mariam, three months pregnant, worries about her health as much as her children’s hunger.
“We eat the hot meals distributed in the camp, but they are not nutritious,” she said. “We see food in the markets, bananas, apples, fish, eggs, but we can’t afford them. I am pregnant and need proper food and supplements. I’ve lost my teeth because there has been no calcium in my diet for two years.”
Still, she ends with quiet resolve: “Alhamdulillah.”
For families like Alzanin’s and Hamouda’s, survival in Gaza has become a daily struggle, not just against war, but against hunger, poverty, and the slow erosion of hope.
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