Gaza – Together – United Nations estimates issued on Thursday said that if the war in Gaza stopped today, it would take until 2040 to rebuild all the homes that were destroyed in the Strip during nearly 7 months of Israeli bombing and ground attacks.
“Every additional day that this war continues imposes huge and multiplying costs on the people of Gaza and all Palestinians,” said UNDP Director Achim Steiner.
At least 370,000 housing units were damaged in Gaza, including 79,000 completely destroyed, according to the new report issued by the United Nations Development Program and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, which details how the Israeli offensive, which began after the Hamas attack. On October 7, to the destruction of the economy of the Palestinian territories, and how the impact will increase the longer the conflict lasts.
After previous wars between Israel and Hamas, housing was rebuilt at a rate of 992 units annually.
The report said that even if Israel allowed a five-fold increase in construction materials to Gaza, it would take until 2040 to rebuild the destroyed homes, without repairing the damaged homes.
In Gaza, the war has effectively shut down the economy, which shrank by 81 percent in the last quarter of 2023.
The report explained that ‘the productive basis of the economy has been destroyed,’ with its sectors suffering losses of more than 90 percent.
Gaza, inhabited by about 2.3 million Palestinians, has been subject to a siege by Israel since Hamas took control of the Strip in 2007, which imposes strict control on what enters and exits the Strip. Even before the war, Gaza faced ‘excessive unemployment’ of 45 percent, reaching about 63 percent among younger workers. Since the beginning of the war, about 201 thousand jobs have been lost.
The war also affected the West Bank, where Israel imposed movement restrictions for months.
The report said that in 2024, the entire Palestinian economy – in both Gaza and the West Bank – has so far shrunk by 25.8 percent, and if the war continues, the loss will reach 29 percent by July, equivalent to $7.6 billion.
The Strip is also facing a humanitarian catastrophe, and the war has led to the displacement of about 80 percent of Gaza’s population, numbering 2.3 million people, from their homes, in addition to widespread destruction in many towns and cities, and the areas of northern Gaza are on the brink of famine.
Source: Maan News Agency
