UN warns Gaza’s survival is at stake as war triggers unprecedented economic collapse, with reconstruction costs exceeding $70 billion and recovery taking decades.
GENEVA: Israel’s war in Gaza is threatening the Palestinian territory’s very survival, the United Nations warned on Tuesday.
The UN Trade and Development agency (UNCTAD) said rebuilding the Gaza Strip will cost more than $70 billion and could take several decades.
“The military operations have significantly undermined every pillar of survival,” the agency stated in a new report, adding that Gaza has been “plunged into a human-made abyss”.
The report warned that war and restrictions had triggered an “unprecedented collapse across the Palestinian economy”.
Gaza’s economy contracted by 87% during 2023-2024, leaving gross domestic product per capita at just $161.
The scale of destruction has “unleashed cascading crises, economic, humanitarian, environmental and social, propelling Gaza from de-development to utter ruin,” UNCTAD said.
Even with optimistic growth scenarios and significant foreign aid, returning to pre-October 2023 welfare levels would take several decades.
UNCTAD called for a “comprehensive recovery plan” combining international assistance, restored fiscal transfers, and eased constraints on trade and movement.
The agency also recommended introducing a universal emergency basic income for Gaza’s entire population, which faces “extreme, multidimensional impoverishment”.
The West Bank also experienced its worst economic decline since UNCTAD began records in 1972, due to violence, settlement expansion and mobility restrictions.
Hamas’s attack on southern Israel in October 2023 killed 1,221 people and sparked the devastating two-year war.
Israel’s retaliatory assault has killed more than 69,000 people, according to health ministry figures the UN considers reliable.
