2023-10-25 23:21:00
People search for survivors in the rubble in Khan Younis Mahmud Hams / AFP – 10/25/2023 The Gaza Strip has suffered 16 years of setbacks in development, the United Nations warned in a report published this Wednesday (25), which highlights that the consequences economic consequences of the conflict between Hamas and Israel cannot yet be determined. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) highlights that Gaza’s economy has been “suffocated” over the years and that, before the war, 80% of the population already depended on international aid. “Since restrictions and closures began, Gaza has suffered 16 years of development setbacks and the suppression of human potential and the right to development,” UNCTAD said in an annual report on the Palestinian territory’s economy. Since 2007, coinciding with the rise to power of the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas in Gaza, Israel has blockaded this narrow territory of 2.4 million inhabitants by land, sea and air. Although the document focuses on 2022, UNCTAD representatives addressed the conflict triggered after the bloody October 7 attack by Hamas at a press conference. According to Israeli authorities, the Islamic movement killed more than 1,400 people and kidnapped more than 220 hostages. Israel responded with relentless bombings of Gaza, killing more than 6,500 people, according to Hamas. It also cut off the supply of water, food, electricity and fuel to this besieged territory. “The economic consequences of the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza are impossible to determine,” but it will take “tens of billions of dollars” to repair the Strip’s economy, said Richard Kozul-Wright, director of the Division of Globalization, Strategies and Development . The report guarantees that 2022 has already been “one of the worst years for Palestinians in recent history”, but “it is obvious that 2023 will be even worse”, said Mutasim Elagraa, coordinator of assistance to the Palestinian people at UNCTAD. International aid to the Palestinian economy has decreased from US$2 billion (R$10 billion) in 2008 to US$550 million (R$2.7 million) in 2022, which has “really serious economic ramifications”, he added. The report also reveals that the Palestinian economy has been hit hard by the pandemic. GDP per capita in 2022 was 8.6% lower than in 2019, a drop that rises to 11.7% in Gaza. UNCTAD says unemployment was 45% in the Gaza Strip and 13% in the West Bank, although these figures only take into account people still looking for work. This body calls for an end to the “vicious circle of destruction and partial reconstruction” and the negotiation of “a peaceful solution based on international law”.
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