UN decries 'staggering' Israeli devastation in Gaza, West Bank
The United Nations says Gaza’s economy is in "ruins" and less than a sixth of the size it was before Israel launched a military campaign there nearly a year ago.
The UN Trade and Development agency (UNCTAD) said in a new report on Thursday that economic devastation had taken place at a "staggering scale" over the past few months.
"Production processes have been disrupted or decimated, income sources have disappeared, poverty has intensified and expanded, neighborhoods have been eradicated and communities and towns have been ruined," it said.
Already by early 2024, UNCTAD said, up to 96 percent of Gaza's agricultural assets, including farms, orchards, irrigation systems, machinery and storage facilities, had been "decimated."
Commenting on the report, UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Pedro Manuel Moreno said, “The Palestinian economy is in freefall.”
Mutasim Elagraa, who coordinates UNCTAD's Palestinian assistance program, said it remained unclear how much it would cost to rebuild.
"But the evidence we have now (indicates) it will be high tens of billions or maybe even more," he told reporters in the Swiss city of Geneva.
"It will take decades to bring Gaza back to where it was in October 2023."
Elsewhere in the report, the UN trade body said the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule under Israeli occupation in the West Bank, is under “immense pressure” that is jeopardizing its ability to function.
The UN report also warned of an "alarming decline" in the West Bank. It pointed out that the unemployment in the occupied territory has nearly tripled in recent months.
Israel continues its devastating invasion of the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 41,100 people, mostly women and children.
Violence by Israeli forces and settlers has surged in the West Bank since the start of the Israeli genocidal campaign in Gaza in early October 2023.
Palestinians say such onslaughts are aimed at cementing Israel’s seemingly open-ended military rule over the occupied territory.
More than 700 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7.
Rights groups have warned of escalating violence in the West Bank and the use of tactics by Israeli forces that the world has witnessed in its war on Gaza.
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