A report by the World Bank stated that since the start of the war, Gaza’s economy experienced one of the largest shocks recorded in recent economic history.
The Gaza Strip’s economy shrank by more than 80% in the fourth quarter of last year due to Israeli attacks, the World Bank has said.
In a report, the bank said the attacks on the besieged Palestinian enclave since October have resulted in massive loss of life and the effects of the conflict on the Palestinian economy have been consequential, the Anadolu news agency reported.
GDP plummeted from approximately $670 million in the third quarter to roughly $90 million in the fourth quarter, the report added.
It said that since the start of the conflict, the Palestinian economy experienced “one of the largest shocks recorded in recent economic history”.
“Almost all economic activity in Gaza has ground to a halt,” the Bank said.
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It further pointed out that “The combination of pre-existing high levels of poverty, widespread internal displacement, the destruction of homes, fixed assets, and productive capacity, coupled with a massive economic downturn, realistically means that nearly every resident of Gaza will live in poverty, at least in the short term.”
The conflict, the report added, “is expected to leave lasting impacts on the affected populations in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, extending far beyond any economic assessment.”
The report emphasized that about 1.7 million Palestinians living in Gaza – some 75% of the total population in Gaza – have been internally displaced and the entire population of 2.3 million is suffering from a shortage of food, water, electricity, fuel and medicine.
“The observed level of fixed assets damage and destruction is catastrophic,” it added.
Over 29,400 Killed
Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip since an October 7 resistance operation against Israel.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 29,410 Palestinians have been killed, and 69,465 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7.
(PC, Anadolu)
The Gaza economy is also affected by the looting and thievery of IDF soldiers and army with even its Bank of Gaza and the dealer of foreign exchange totally raided of contents. These looting occupiers Nazi descendants are overdoing what their original Nazi ascendants did. Poor Gazans, our prayers are always with you.