Gaza is suffering from the worst economic crisis ever recorded, with 90 per cent of working-age Palestinians left jobless and the entire population plunged into “multidimensional poverty”, according to a United Nations assessment.
The report, released on Thursday by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), found that Israeli military action in Gaza since 1967 created a “spiralling crisis” of economic decline and humanitarian hardship.
The situation severely worsened following the Hamas attacks on 7 October, with more than 73,000 people killed since October 2023.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Pedro Manuel Moreno, acting secretary-general of UNCTAD, stated that “the collapse of the economy of Gaza is the world’s most severe economic crisis on record”, adding that the conflict “has wiped out decades of development”.
Mutasim Elagraa, UNCTAD’s coordinator for assistance to the Palestinians, noted that two out of three people were poor prior to October 2023, whereas today “everyone in Gaza is multidimensionally poor,” reports The Independent.
With industrial and agricultural production down 94 per cent and only 1.5 per cent of arable land remaining accessible, Palestinians face “total dependence on humanitarian food aid”.
The assessment outlined severe economic destruction, noting annual GDP per capita fell 82 per cent from 2022 levels to $212—or $0.58 per day in 2025.
An estimated 92 per cent of Gaza’s economic establishments have been damaged or destroyed, while commodity prices surged 274 per cent.
Holding Israel responsible, UNCTAD accused it of imposing structural constraints that have “systematically stunted the Palestinian economy”.
The report warned that the crisis extends to the West Bank due to settlement expansion and Israel depriving the Palestinian Government of rightful fiscal revenues, threatening systemic banking collapse.
Reconstructing Gaza is estimated at $71.5b, with rubble clearance taking up to decades or seven years under right conditions.
Emphasising the need for global intervention, UNCTAD urged that once a permanent ceasefire is secured, the international community must immediately mobilise large-scale support to rebuild productive capacities and actively reverse decades of de-development under occupation.
The report concluded that a sovereign, independent Palestinian State, as called for in UN resolutions, is a precondition for peace, but “cannot be built on a collapsed economy”.
