Data considers that the war between Israel and Hamas ends immediately and reconstruction begins afterwards
A Unctad (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) he said that it would take decades and billions of dollars for the Gaza Strip's economy to recover if the war between Israel and Hamas ended today. According to the agency, the GDP per capita of the region fell 26.1% in 2023. Here is the complete (PDF – 2 MB, in English) of the report released on Wednesday (January 31, 2024),
If the current military operation were to end immediately and reconstruction began afterwards, it would take the Gaza Strip until the year 2092 just to restore 2022 GDP levels. Unctad used as a basis the growth rate from 2007 to 2022 of the Palestinian enclave, of 0.4% expansion per year.
The recovery of the region's economy will require, said Unctad, a financial commitment “several times higher than the US$3.9 billion resulting from the 2014 military operation in Gaza” and will demand “a joint international effort” to restore pre-conflict socioeconomic conditions.
In a more optimistic scenario, with GDP growing by 10% per year, it would take the Gaza Strip until 2035 to recover its pre-2006 blockade level.
“Socio-economic conditions in Gaza were dire in 2022 and the first half of 2023, with more than 2 million inhabitants confined to one of the most densely populated spaces in the world, suffering from inadequate access to drinking water, sporadic electricity supply and no electricity system. adequate sewage”, declared the UN body (United Nations).
Poverty, UNCTAD added, affected 2/3 of the population of the Gaza Strip and 45% of the workforce was unemployed before the start of Israel's military operation. In December 2023, according to the agency, unemployment reached 79.3% of the population.
“The ongoing military operation has displaced 85% of Gaza's population, paralyzing economic activities and further worsening poverty and unemployment”, he stated. According to Unctad, 37,379 buildings (18% of the total structures in the Gaza Strip) were damaged or destroyed by the military operation.
The report cites the need to break the cycle of economic destruction that has made 80% of the population of the Palestinian enclave dependent on international aid and says that “a return to the pre-conflict status quo is not an option”.
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