Скачать или смотреть Decades of development lost as UN finds Gaza as ‘the most severe economic crisis on record’

A new report by the UN has found the economy across occupied Palestine to be in free-fall as a result of Israel’s actions, with Gaza standing out as “the most severe economic crisis on record”.

Published on Tuesday, the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report details how two years of devastation, asset and building destruction, deaths and displacement amid freezes on Israeli fiscal transfers has “has reversed decades of socioeconomic progress” across both Gaza and the West Bank.

By the end of 2024, Palestinian GDP fell back to its 2010 level while GDP per capita returned to that of 2003, erasing 22 years of development progress in less than two years. In Gaza, two decades of severe constraints on trade, movement and access to resources have exacerbated the effects of the war, leading to Gaza’s GDP contracting by 83 percent from 2023-24. The costs of rebuilding the strip stand at an estimated $70 billion.

In the West Bank, expansion of settlements and movement restrictions “disrupt the economy, trade and investment, and reduce access to land, resources and markets”, impacting 3.3 million people. Here, the GDP contracted by 17 percent, returning to levels last recorded in 2014.

Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, took to X to highlight how Israel “has erased 69 years of human development, marking the worst economic collapse ever recorded”.


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