According to an estimate by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published on Tuesday, the poverty rate in the Palestinian territories will almost double this year, reaching 74.3%. The main reason for this increase is more than a year of active hostilities in Gaza.
“The consequences of the war, including the destruction of infrastructure, increased poverty and loss of livelihoods, are enormous,” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner told France Presse.
According to the UN, the poverty rate in the occupied Palestinian territories (Gaza and the West Bank) will reach 74.3% in 2024, compared to 38.8% at the end of 2023. This means that the total number of poor people will reach 4.1 million, of whom 2.61 million will become new victims of poverty.
Steiner warns that the Palestinian economy may not return to pre-war levels for at least ten years, even with annual humanitarian aid.
The rising unemployment rate, projected at 49.9%, and the 35.1% decline in GDP are additional indicators of a deep economic crisis.
According to UNDP, the devastation in Gaza has left behind 42 million tonnes of rubble, which poses a serious threat to human health and the ecosystem, including hazards from hazardous substances and unexploded ordnance.
The war in Gaza began after an unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement Hamas on Israel on 7 October 2023. According to AFP, 1206 Israelis were killed, most of them civilians. In response to the attack, Israel launched a large-scale military operation that killed at least 42,600 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-controlled government’s Ministry of Health.
