A new UN report had concluded that, under current economic trends, Gaza could be uninhabitable in less than five years.
Yesterday, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), issued its periodic report on “assistance to the Palestinian people,” revealing the dire prediction.
UNCTAD has attributed the decline of Gaza’s living conditions to Israel’s eight-year economic blockade, coupled with the three wars that Israel has waged there over the past six years.
UNCTAD has observed that the reconstruction efforts remain far too slow, considering the degree of devastation caused by the wars and other effects of occupation. The UN agency notes that socioeconomic conditions are now at their lowest point since the Israeli occupation began in 1967.
The report tells the story of how the war has effectively eliminated what was left of the middle class, sending almost all of the population into destitution and dependence on international humanitarian aid (p. 8).
Gaza`s GDP dropped 15 percent last year, and unemployment reached a record high of 44 percent. Seventy-two percent of households are food insecure. UNCTAD’s quantification of material losses to infrastructure and buildings at 3.2 billion dollars as a result of the last two wars (p. 10). The cost of human and human-capital losses are more difficult to calculate with certainty.
The “tunnel economy” also comes under the UNCTAD review, which the report refers to as a “problem rather than a solution” to Gaza’s blockade. Also notable is UNCTAD’s conclusion that donor support for the reconstruction is insufficient for recovery and development of the Gaza Strip.
In its coverage, Al Jazeera quoted Hamdi Shaqqura, deputy director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, to assert: “The humanitarian catastrophe is man-made. The answer is only through are man-made policies.”
Shaqqura said that donations from the international community have been very useful, but need to be coupled with real political policies to effectively help Gaza.
The answer to Gaza is not dumping money into it. We have great potentials in Gaza for economic policies. What hinder economic development is merely Israeli policies, the closure (blockade) and other restrictions imposed on Gaza.
HLRN notes that other recent estimates have set the cost of Gaza’s physical reconstruction alone at US$ 6 billion.
Download the full UNCTAD report.
Photo: Last year`s war on Gaza displaced half a million people and left parts of the strip destroyed. Source: EPA.
Related articles on HLRN News:
GRM: Tool for Gaza Building or Blockade?, 31 July 2015
Qatar to Fund 70% of Gaza Reconstruction, 12 March 2015
30 Aid Agencies: “We must not fail in Gaza”, 26 February 2015
Gaza Farmers Endure “Constant War”, 24 February 2015
Displaced Gazans Struggle to Rebuild, 15 December 2014
Local Authorities in Solidarity with Palestine, 8 December 2014
Donors Pledge $5.4 bln to Rebuild Gaza12 October 2014
Gaza Strip: Overcoming Repercussions of Disaster, 28 August 2014
Rebuilding Gaza Will Cost $6 Billion,7 August 2014
