The United Nations says that the Gaza Strip is no longer fit for habitation

The Gaza Strip is considered “virtually uninhabitable” according to the United Nations, with at least half of the buildings destroyed about four months after the start of the war with Israel.

A preliminary report issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (CNUCED in French, UNCTAD in English) stressed the need to spend tens of billions of dollars to make the narrow strip of land in the Gaza Strip viable again. Agency researchers assessed the extent of the damage caused by Israel.

The researchers relied mainly on high-resolution satellite images, and compared images taken before October 7 with those that followed, after Israel began relentlessly bombing the Gaza Strip in response to the unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on its territory.

Data collection for the report stopped at the end of November, about two months after the outbreak of the conflict.

By then, 37,379 buildings – or approximately 18% of the total buildings in the Gaza Strip – had been damaged or completely destroyed by the military operation.

Since then, satellite images show the devastation has doubled, Rami Alaz, an economist at CNUCED who specializes in helping Palestinians and one of the report's authors, told AFP.

He added, “New data shows that 50% of construction facilities in the Gaza Strip were (completely) exposed (or destroyed).”

The economic expert stressed that “the Gaza Strip is currently uninhabitable.”

– GDP shrank by a quarter

The war broke out after an unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on the southern sectors of Israeli territory on October 7, which led to the killing of about 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to a tally prepared by Agence France-Presse based on official data from the authorities.

About 250 other people were also kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip. More than a hundred were released when a week-long truce was declared in late November. According to Israeli authorities, 132 Palestinians remain in the Palestinian enclave, but 29 of them are believed to have died.

In response to the October 7 attack, Israel vowed to “eliminate” the Palestinian Islamic movement that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, and its military operations since then have resulted in the deaths of at least 26,900 people, the vast majority of them women and children. According to the Hamas Ministry of Health.

CNUCED notes that the situation in the Gaza Strip was already disastrous even before the outbreak of war, as the seventeen-year blockade and repeated military operations left about 80% of the population dependent on international aid.

Based on satellite images and official data, the UN agency estimates that the Gaza Strip's economy has already contracted by 4.5% in the first three quarters of 2023.

“The military operation significantly accelerated the recession and caused GDP per capita to contract by 24% and GDP per capita to contract by 26.1% for the full year,” the press release accompanying its report said.

Alaz pointed out that the decline in per capita GDP last year is roughly equivalent to what we witnessed throughout the siege period and during six previous military operations.

45% of the working population in the Palestinian sector was unemployed before October 7, and the war has caused the unemployment rate to rise significantly, as it is estimated to have reached about 80% in December.

“The entire economy in the Gaza Strip has been paralyzed,” Al-Azza explained, explaining that the only people working are those who participate in humanitarian activities.

Tens of billions

CNUCED estimates that even if reconstruction begins immediately and the Gaza Strip returns to the average growth rate of 0.4% seen over the past 15 years, it will take seven decades before the sector again achieves its impressive level of GDP. pathetic in 2022.

The economist explains that the matter will require massive international aid, especially if the goal is to improve the level of development in the Gaza Strip.

According to the report, “there is no doubt that it should reach tens of billions of dollars” and this is a “conservative estimate.”

For the UN agency, any solution to the crisis must include ending military operations, lifting the blockade, and progressing toward a two-state solution.

He explains that the goal cannot simply be “a return to the status quo before October 2023.”