As a result of the renewed conflict between Israel and Hamas that started on October 7, more than 66 percent of Gaza’s jobs have been lost since the start of the conflict, according to new data released by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and Palestinian statistics office.
There has been a decline in the number of Palestinian jobs in the Gaza Strip by two-thirds since the outbreak of the war – equivalent to 192,000 jobs – according to ILO and Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) figures released Wednesday.
As a consequence of the influx of refugee workers into the occupied West Bank, a third of the jobs in the West Bank were eliminated, equivalent to 276,000 jobs being lost.
There is no doubt that Gaza’s loss of employment will worsen the dire situation that prevailed there already prior to the conflict that led to the blockade, resulting in it being essentially uninhabitable, which is what the report described.
A Palestinian report released on Sunday emphasizes the persistent poverty, vulnerability, and one of the highest unemployment rates among Palestinians in Gaza that they have been struggling with for many years.
In the wake of the crisis, PCBS president Ola Awad stated: “The economic structure of the Palestinian people has been severely damaged.”. According to the UN, the number of unemployed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has now exceeded three quarters of the population, and more than one third is unemployed in the West Bank. The number of unemployed Palestinians has reached its highest level in decades.
Previously, international aid organizations have described the situation as a “humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions” that has irreparably damaged the country’s labour market, causing the population to become dependent on international assistance for the rest of their lives.
In a reported interview from Geneva, ILO’s deputy regional director for the Arab states, Peter Rademaker, told the news channel that Palestinians in Gaza “will be living in poverty for many months, maybe even years to come” as a result of Israel’s war against the enclave.
According to the expert, the labour market in Gaza and the West Bank that were occupied by Israel was already very depressed before the war began.
The war will be affecting a large number of Gazans and West Bankers who will not be able to earn a living. It is unlikely they are going to get any money from anybody and they will increasingly be dependent on international assistance in order to survive,” said the deputy director.
The people of Palestine will now be left to depend upon the global aid distributions for many years to come and will be forced to compete for a share of money that will be distributed globally in the form of aid payments.
He stated that due to the lack of public funding available to the authorities for the provision of social assistance, that it would have to be provided from outside the government. As we all are aware, there are many crises that rage across the globe, and it is unlikely that Palestinians will receive the international aid they need during this period.
The UN has confirmed that nearly 40,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed as a result of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, or about 18 percent of all pre-conflict structures, since the conflict started.
That news provided by timenews.
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