War has knocked Gaza back to the 1950s, UN development agency says

The war between Israel and Hamas has devastated the Palestinian economy and left nearly all of Gaza’s population in poverty, with quality of life indicators such as health and education knocked back 70 years, the United Nations Development Programme says.

Launching a study on the war’s socioeconomic impacts, the UNDP’s Chitose Noguchi says the economy of the Palestinian territories — the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — is now 35% smaller than it was when Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attacks on Israel a year ago, leading to the war.

By some measures the poverty level in Gaza is now approaching 100% as a result of the disruption, with unemployment now at 80%, Noguchi says.

“The state of Palestine is experiencing unprecedented levels of setbacks,” she tells a UN press conference in Geneva over a sometimes crackling line from Deir Al-Balah. “For Gaza, reversing development by an estimated 70 years to 1955.”

Even under optimal conditions, with international aid remaining at current levels and flowing into Gaza and the West Bank unhindered, it will still take at least a decade for economic output to recover to pre-war levels, she says.