A new United Nations report says the Palestinian economic crisis is now at a “breaking point,” citing rising poverty levels and increasing environmental degradation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“In 2018 and early 2019, the performance of the Palestinian economy and humanitarian conditions reached an all-time low. Per capita income fell, mass unemployment increased, poverty deepened and the environmental toll of occupation has been rising in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” said the report by United Nations development agency (UNCTAD).
A picture taken on June 1, 2018, shows a girl running past hovels near a sewage water pool at a poor neighborhood in Gaza City. (AFP/Mahmud Hams)
According to UNCTAD, one in three West Bank Palestinians are unemployed, and in Gaza, the unemployment rate has hit 53%.
The report says the Palestinian economy is being hit hard by a sharp drop in international support to the Palestinians, a tax revenue dispute with Israel and the refusal of neighboring countries to share oil and natural gas reserves with Palestinians.
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